IGAD seeks UN monitoring of Sudanese accord

NAIROBI, Kenya, June 12, 2005 (PANA) — African foreign ministers Sunday began
deliberations on the fate of IGAD (the Intergovernmental
Authority on Development) Secretariat on Sudan to avert a
potential power vacuum in monitoring of the Sudan peace accord.

The IGAD Council of Ministers, pondering on the future role of
the Secretariat, expressed concern over the delay by the UN to
take over the role of monitoring the implementation of the peace
accord six months after its was signed.

Kenyan Regional Cooperation Minister John Koech said the
Secretariat is still involved in the verification and monitoring
of the Abyei Boundaries, one of the reasons which led to a bitter
war between Khartoum and Southern Sudan over control of oil
resources.

There is no firm decision that the UN will take over IGAD’s
monitoring work which by August 2005 ending, Koech noted, saying
“I therefore propose that we reconsider and redefine the role of
the IGAD Secretariat on Sudan to complete the final issues at
hand.”

The seven-member IGAD, which mediated the protracted Sudanese
conflict, said the international community must give diplomatic
support to the implementation of the Sudanese peace accord, which
provided for the monitoring by the UN and the AU.

The Southern Sudanese rebels fought with the northern Khartoum
government over the control of the Abyei region, which had been
granted semi-independence in an earlier peace effort, which later
collapsed in the 1970s.

Both sides claimed control of the region as well as two other
resource-rich states — the Southern Blue Nile and the Nuba
Mountains — rich in fertile lands and massive water resources,
that party precipitated the war in the Southern Sudan lasting 21
years.

UN experts were expected to begin the monitoring of the Sudanese
agreement after its signing and the deployment of UN peacekeeping
troops in the South, but the process has been overshadowed by
attempts to stabilise the Darfur region where fighting flared up
more than two years ago.

Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace agreement provided for the monitoring
and implementation of the agreements, which include six Protocols
and their implementation modalities six months after the signing.

The IGAD ministers were due to announce the extension of the IGAD
Secretariat’s mandate but it was not immediately clear for how
long the extension would be granted.