Sudanese VP, SPLM leader to attend UN meeting

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 7, 2005 (Xinhua) — Sudanese First Vice President Osman Taha and John Garang, leader of former rebels in southern Sudan, will participate in an open meeting of the UN Security Council Tuesday, a UN spokesman said Monday.

Sudanese vice president Ali Osman Mohamed Taha, left, and John Garang, chairman of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army share a joke before they signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, Sunday, Jan 9, 2005 at Nyayo stadium in Nairobi, Kenya. (AP).

Also expected to be present at the open debate are UN Secretary- General Kofi Annan and African Union Representative Baba Gana Kingibe, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard told reporters.

The meeting is expected to discuss the implementation of Sudan’ s North-South peace agreement, establishment of a UN peacekeeping mission to this effect, and the conflict in Darfur, west Sudan.

Taha and Garang, chairman of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, signed a comprehensive peace deal in Kenya in December, formally ending the 21-year civil war in southern Sudan, the longest-running in Africa. Annan has recommended the Security Council authorize the deployment of a 11,000-strong peacekeeping force in southern Sudan.

Annan told reporters Monday he believed it was important to have leaders of Sudan’s two former rivals to discuss not only the peace process but the implementation of the process and the action they need to take on the ground to make it hold.