EU urges Sudan’s peace partners to stick to unity government
October 12, 2007 (BRUSSELS) — European Union officials Friday appealed to northern and southern Sudanese political factions to stick to a 2005 peace pact, fearing that a collapse of the delicate treaty could lead to new civil war, complicating international efforts to end the Darfur crisis.
E.U. foreign policy chief Javier Solana’s spokeswoman Cristina Gallach said a suspension of the peace deal could lead to more instability and comes just days before E.U. foreign ministers are expected to give their final go-ahead to send a 3,000-strong peacekeeping force to neighboring Chad to protect fleeing refugees from Darfur.
“We are very worried,” Gallach said, adding the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the north and south “is a fundamental instrument for the stability of Sudan.” She said E.U. officials were appealing to all political groups “to implement the Comprehensive Peace Agreement which holds together Sudan.”
Former southern rebels pulled their ministers out of the national Sudanese government to protest peace treaty violations on Thursday, threatening the fragile peace pact that ended two decades of civil war, and opening up new problems for the U.N. to end fighting in Sudan’s western Darfur region.
“We have entered into a very complex situation,” Gallach said.
She said the pullout of southern former rebels from the government could also impact Darfur peace talks between the Sudanese government and rebel factions planned for Libya on Oct. 27.
“This is happening at the moment when preparations of talks for Darfur are also facing great difficulties,” Gallach said. Those U.N. sponsored talks are uncertain as at least one major rebel figure has already said he plans to boycott the talks.
At talks Oct. 15, E.U. foreign ministers are to approve a U.N.-backed security mission which will deploy European troops as early as November to Chad and the Central African Republic.
Around half of the E.U. force would be French, with other countries like Ireland, Sweden, Poland and Belgium providing between 80 to 300 troops each, E.U. officials have said.
The task of the E.U. force will be to improve security and make it easier for aid groups to do their work in the camps that border Sudan’s Darfur region. In addition, a 26,000-member joint African Union-U.N. peacekeeping force is planned in Darfur itself.
The E.U. force will also work alongside a U.N. police force which will work inside the camps.
U.N. officials estimate that around 3 million people have been uprooted by conflicts in the region, including the fighting in Darfur and unrelated rebellions in Chad and the Central African Republic. The majority – some 2.25 million – are Darfuris displaced within Darfur.
(AP)