UNHCR chief calls for pressure on Darfur foes to clinch peace deal by year-end

Aug 31, 2005 (Nairobi) — The head of the UN refugee agency called Wednesday for the world to press Khartoum and rebels to use an existing “window of opportunity” to seal a peace deal by year’s end in Sudan’s troubled western Darfur region.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees chief Antonio Guterres said he believed a landmark January peace agreement ending Sudan’s north-south civil war had created momentum and “political will” to resolve the ongoing crisis in Darfur.

“There is political will for an agreement in Darfur,” he told reporters here after visiting the region where an estimated 300,000 people have died and more than two million displaced as a result of the 30-month-old civil war.

“It is essential for the international community to put pressure for this political will to be translated into real peace agreements to be effective at the end of this year,” Guterres said.

As Khartoum and Darfur’s two rebel groups prepare for another round of peace talks in the Nigerian capital on September 15, he said violence continued to rage in the region the size of France.

“It is crucial to make sure that people understand that the crucial opportunity for the international community to act is now, because if this opportunity is missed, it will probably not come in the next few years,” Guterres said.

“I believe that the government and the rebel movements now understand really that there is no better chance than peace (but) the mistrust is huge, so a peace agreement to be possible needs pressure in place,” he said.

Fighting in Darfur broke out in February 2003 when an uprising representing the mainly black population of the region led Khartoum to unleash Arab militias known as Janjaweed, which have been accused of torture, rape and intimidation.

AFP/ST