New UN draft resolution urges warring parties in Sudan to reach peace

By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 6, 2004 (AP) — A new draft resolution circulated within the Security Council urges warring parties in southern Sudan and western Darfur province to reach peace agreements while promising international support and possible debt forgiveness if they do.

But the British draft circulated Friday also reiterates that the Security Council will consider “further urgent action” against any party in the Darfur conflict that fails to implement an April ceasefire, protect civilians, cooperate with African Union peacekeepers, disarm militias and prosecute the perpetrators of atrocities.

Council members are expected to discuss the draft next week and adopt the resolution during a meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, on Nov. 18-19, only the fourth time since 1952 that the Security Council will hold a formal meeting outside New York.

U.S. Ambassador John Danforth, the current council president who conceived the Nairobi meeting to focus on the crisis in Sudan, said Thursday that the resolution will “present the concept of the carrot _ namely that the international community will be there for Sudan if there is peace.”

But if there is no peace, he said, the council will make clear that “nothing good is going to come to the various groups.”

Danforth chose Nairobi because government and rebel negotiators are meeting there to try to finalize a peace agreement to end a 21-year civil war in southern Sudan that began when rebels from the mainly animist and Christian south took up arms against the predominantly Arab and Muslim north.

The draft resolution encourages the parties in Nairobi “to redouble their efforts” to rapidly reach an agreement which must be implemented “fully and transparently.”

It also “underlines the importance of progress in peace talks” in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, to resolve the 20-month Darfur conflict “and insists that all parties … negotiate in good faith to reach agreement speedily.”

Sudan’s government is accused of backing pro-government Arab militia in Darfur known as Janjaweed in a campaign of violence _ including rapes, killings and the burning of villages _ to help put down a rebellion by non-Arab African groups. The government denies backing the militias. The Arab militias and African groups are both Muslim.

Expressing serious concern at “the growing insecurity and violence” in Darfur, the draft resolution demands that all armed groups immediately stop attacks, cooperate with relief and monitoring efforts, and obey international humanitarian law.

Once a comprehensive peace agreement is reached, the draft reiterates the council’s readiness to establish a U.N. peace support operation to implement it.

On the financial side, the draft encourages U.N. bodies, the World Bank, the European Union and others to continue working on an “assistance package for the reconstruction and economic development of Sudan, including possible debt forgiveness” that would be activated when a peace deal is reached. A donors’ conference would also take place.

The draft welcomes deployment of an expanded African Union force in Darfur and urges U.N. member states to provide logistics and financing for the troops and for humanitarian efforts in Sudan and neighboring Chad. It also urges all parties to cooperate with an international commission investigating human rights violations in Darfur, including whether acts of genocide occurred.

Jan Pronk, the top U.N. envoy to Sudan, said Thursday that the council needs to use “strong political language” in Nairobi and offer the government and rebel groups “not just a carrot, but also a stick.”

The Security Council should set a deadline, demanding that the agreement to end the civil war in southern Sudan be finalized by the end of the year, he said.

The end of the year should also be the deadline for the government and rebels in Darfur to agree on an agenda and timetable for political negotiations, he said.

Danforth stressed Thursday that a north-south peace agreement is critical not only to promoting stability throughout the country but also to serve as a model for a future power-sharing accord in Darfur.