Militias jeopardise Sudan north-south peace-VP Kiir
Dec 5, 2006 (MALAKAL) — Further attacks in southern Sudan by militias allied with the country’s ruling party will jeopardise the 2005 north-south peace deal, Salva Kiir, the ex-rebel turned vice president said on Tuesday.
The landmark agreement between the government of the northern National Congress Party and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) ended a 21-year civil war that killed around two million people.
Tension has been rising, however, since the SPLM arrested 15 members of the northern Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in October on suspicion of carrying out attacks around Juba, the capital of southern Sudan.
The SPLM now accuses a militia allied to the ruling party of sparking clashes with its armed wing last week in the southern town of Malakal in which at least 150 people were killed, according to the United Nations.
“This incident … is the second (after) Juba,” Kiir told reporters in Malakal. “If this continues it will put the CPA (Comprehensive Peace Agreement) in jeopardy.”
The United Nations, which has 10,000 peacekeepers to monitor the deal in the south, said between 400 and 500 people were also wounded in the fighting.
The Armed Forces has said Kiir’s movement had besieged its garrison in Malakal after a dispute with Gabriel Tang, a former pro-Khartoum militia commander and now an army general.
The peace deal formed separate north and south armies with joint armed units in main towns including Malakal, the capital of the Upper Nile region and potentially one of the most oil-rich areas in Sudan, which produces at least 330,000 barrels per day of crude.
The deal also included agreements to share power and wealth between the north and south. Implementation has been slow on key issues such as the demarcation of borders and ownership of oil fields.
Kiir said the National Congress Party of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir did not have the political will to disband its proxy militias or fully integrate them in the armed forces.
“There is a lack of political will otherwise this thing would have ended,” he said. “The militias are actually guided by the political agenda of the National Congress.”
There was no comment from the ruling party on Tuesday. Its senior members have repeatedly denied putting any obstacle against the implementation of the peace deal.
(Reuters)