Peace deal imminent in Sudan, but separate conflict rages in Darfur

NAIROBI, Kenya, May 20, 2004 (CNSNews.com) — The Sudanese government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) rebels are edging closer to a long-delayed agreement that would end the country’s main conflict, but a separate conflict in the western Darfur region is raging on.

Khartoum and the SPLA have agreed on the remaining issues holding back the signing of the final peace agreement, which could be signed within a week or two, sources said here.

Committees from both parties are presently compiling all the previous, subordinate agreements, to produce a document detailing the comprehensive settlement to end a long-running and costly war between the Muslim Arab north and the black African, mainly Christian and animist south.

The sides have reportedly agreed on the administration of three last disputed areas — the Nuba Mountains, the Southern Blue Nile and Abiyei.

According to Nairobi-based Sudanese scholar, Akasha Alsayeed Akasha, the parties agreed to U.S. recommendations that the first two areas be administered autonomously, but with specified links to the central government.

Abiyei’s administration will fall directly under the presidency rather than a government ministry. After three years, a referendum will decide whether Abiyei joins the north or the south.

Akasha, who is closely associated with the peace talks, said another issue in dispute — power-sharing at central government level — was also nearer resolution.

The government wants to hold a controlling stake of 52 percent of seats in the central government, while the SPLA has 28 percent and other political forces have 20 percent.

Although the SPLA had not entirely agreed with this recommendation, its position was described as ready for a compromise, he said.

Both parties agreed on a federal system of government, and the SPLA has been offered the position of first vice president.

Within six years of the deal becoming effective, a referendum would be held to determine whether the south should secede and form an independent nation.

The latest agreement has raised hopes that Africa’s longest civil war, could end soon. At least two million people have been killed and millions more have been displaced, with southerners bearing the brunt.

Many Sudanese refugees in Nairobi, frustrated by earlier failed promises of an impending peace agreement, are holding back on celebrating until an actual signing ceremony is held.

“We are more than eager to return home but let’s see if its really true about those peace deal rumours,” said Stephen Mkhot, a 32-year-old refugee living in Kenya.

Also of concern to many Sudanese – and to the humanitarian agencies and the international community – is the ongoing conflict in Darfur, a western region about twice the size of Colorado.

In that 15-month-old conflict, involving government troops, government-supported Arab militias and two black African rebel groups, an estimated 10,000 have been killed and nearly a million more displaced.

Some 120,000 have fled into neighboring Chad, where the situation was described Tuesday by Ruud Lubbers, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, as among the world’s gravest emergencies.

The U.S. government this week accused Khartoum of blocking humanitarian access to the victims of the Darfur conflict by using bureaucratic hurdles.

“The government has continued to play games with travel permits while the humanitarian situation in Darfur has deteriorated,” said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher.

H explained that officials had issued three-day permits to some aid workers, but had only handed them over after the three days had expired.

In some cases, “they give us three-day permits, but then you have to notify the government 72 hours in advance of your departure. So by the time the notification becomes applicable, the permit’s expired,” he added.

Boucher said those tactics were preventing aid from reaching the government’s own citizens and called into question Khartoum’s concern for the well-being of its people, and its stated intent to resolve the Darfur situation.

(CNSNews Pacific Rim Bureau Chief Patrick Goodenough contributed to this report.)