Sudanese officials says regional problems may prevent a peace deal to end civil war in Sudan from holding

By By HENRY WASSWA Associated Press Writer

KAMPALA, Uganda, Oct 23, 2003 (AP) — A peace agreement to end the 20-year civil war in Sudan may not hold unless regional leaders commit themselves to solving problems in neighboring countries, Sudan’s foreign minister said Thursday.

“There should be a settlement in northern Uganda, Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia. We should not look at the Sudan settlement in isolation,” Mustafa Osman Ismail said. “It will fail unless we look at it in a comprehensive regional context. Security and political problems in those states should be solved otherwise the whole region will continue to move in a negative direction.”

A 15-month peace process to end the civil war in Sudan is inching toward its conclusion. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell met Sudanese negotiators in neighboring Kenya on Wednesday to pressure the warring parties to reach a comprehensive peace deal by the end of December.

The war in Sudan broke out in 1983 when rebels from the largely animist and Christian south took up arms against the predominantly Arab and Muslim north.

The region has also been plagued by numerous other conflicts.

Somalia has been beset by violence and has not had an effective government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, and a peace process that ended a 2 1/2-year war between Ethiopia and Eritrea is faltering because of disputes about an international boundary commission’s ruling on their disputed border.

And in Uganda, the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army, which has received support from the Sudanese government, is waging a 17-year insurgency.

Ismail said Sudan had “passed the era of fighting,” following the negotiations between the government and rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army.

“What remains is political settlement, political fighting. But we believe that if we are to look for a comprehensive peace in Sudan, it should be in the context of the whole region,” he told reporters.

Ismail was attending a meeting of government ministers from countries that are members of the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development, or IGAD.

IGAD, which includes Sudan, Uganda, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Kenya, is mediating the Sudanese peace talks, as well as efforts to end the chaos and violence in Somalia.