Vice President: To Work For Peace In Darfur,Unity In Sudan
Sep 2, 2005 (Cairo) — Southern Sudan’s new leadership will strive to bring peace to the western region of Darfur and to keep Sudan united, Vice President Salva Kiir Mayardit said Thursday.
Speaking on his first visit to Cairo since his inauguration last month, Kiir, who heads the government of southern Sudan, said he had discussed with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak the two-year rebellion in Darfur, where more than 180,000 people have died and another 2 million have been displaced.
“Both the ruling National Congress and the SPLM will work together to see these problems resolved so that peace will prevail over all the Sudan,” Kiir told reporters, referring to the party of Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir and his own Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, the leading party in the south.
Last month Kiir succeeded John Garang, who died in a July 30 helicopter crash, as leader of the SPLM and president of the autonomous government in the south that was set up under the January peace accord between the mainly Muslim Arab north and the mainly Christian-animist south.
He acknowledged that despite the peace accord, “we still have other problems in the south, and before implementing the agreement, we have to resolve the issue of the other armed groups.” He was referring to pro-government militia in the south.
“We discussed how can Egypt help Sudan overcome its problems and how to help southern Sudan’s development, maintain peace and unity in the country,” Kiir said of his talks with Mubarak.
He denied the SPLM was seeking the secession of southern Sudan. Egypt is strongly opposed to secession. But the peace agreement gives southerners the right to vote for independence in a referendum to be held in 2011.
“It is not in our agenda to divide the country … We are not working to unite one part of the country, but the whole country. And the SPLM fought for the unity of Sudan,” he said.
Kiir later met with the Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, who pledged his organization’s support for economic development in southern Sudan.
The Sudanese government and the Darfur rebels are expected to resume peace talks on Sept. 15 in Abuja, Nigeria.
The Darfur conflict began in February 2003 when rebels from ethnic African tribes took up arms, complaining of discrimination and oppression by Sudan’s Arab-dominated government.
AP/ST