Norway’s new aid minister heads to Sudan to discuss peace

Nov 14, 2005 (OSLO) — Norway’s new development and aid minister, Erik Solheim, will spend this week in Sudan discussing a peace agreement that his predecessor helped mediate, his office announced Monday.

Solheim, a peace mediator in Sri Lanka’s civil war, took office a month ago with a Labor-led coalition called the Red-Green alliance.

“By making this visit, I wish to underline that the Red-Green government intends to continue Norway’s strong engagement for peace in Sudan,” said Erik Solheim of the Socialist Left party.

Norway helped mediate a peace accord that was signed in January to end a 21-year civil war in southern Sudan, although violence continues unabated in a separate conflict in the western region of Darfur.

The Darfur uprising began in February 2004 when rebels took up arms against what they saw as years of state neglect and discrimination against Sudanese of African origin. The United Nations estimates that 180,000 people have died and millions were displaced by that conflict.

Solheim’s Nov. 14-18 visit includes meetings with regional and national government members in Darfur, as well as a visit to a refugee camp in Juba.

The former aid minister, Christian Democrat Hilde Frafjord Johnson, visited Sudan last month, days before she stepped down with a center-right coalition that lost September’s national election in Norway.

Norway, home of the Nobel Peace Prize and a mediator in some of the world’s worst conflicts, is providing economic support and expertise for Darfur peace talks lead by the African Union.

Solheim helped mediate a 2001 cease-fire to end nearly 20 years of fighting between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam seeking a separate homeland for Sri Lanka’s 3.2 million Tamil minority. An estimated 65,000 people died in that conflict.