US welcomes imminent Sudan peace deal but warns Darfur still a major concern
WASHINGTON, May 25 (AFP) — The United States on Tuesday welcomed the imminent signing of key political deals to end the long-running civil war between the Sudanese government and southern rebels but warned that a peace accord would not ease its deep concerns over the humanitarian crisis in western Sudan.
Secretary of State Colin Powell said he had been “pleased” by progress toward inking the agreements on Wednesday that had reported to him in weekend phone calls with the heads of the two delegations at Kenyan-hosted peace talks.
“We’re pleased with the progress that is being made at Lake Naivasha in Kenya between the Sudanese parties,” he told reporters after meeting his Belgian counterpart Louis Michel at the State Department. “We are hopeful and optimistic that there might be some signings tomorrow.”
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Powell had spoken to Ali Osman Taha, Sudan’s vice president, and John Garang, the head of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M), on Sunday and that based on what he had heard, Washington had sent a senior diplomat to Kenya to participate in a signing ceremony.
“They both told the secretary that they expected to be able to sign the three key protocols on Wednesday,” he said. “It still looks like they’re on track to do that. They continue to tell us that they are going to be able to sign tomorrow.”
Charles Snyder, the acting US assistant secretary of state for African affairs who helped draft the documents, was due in Nairobi later Tuesday to attend the ceremony, Boucher said.
The accords — which cover power sharing, the conflict areas of Nuba Mountain and Southern Blue Nile and the disputed town of Abyei — will cap two years of intense negotiations between Khartoum and the SPLA/M that have been marked in recent months by repeated delays.
The fits and starts — including the failure of the two sides to meet an October pledge to Powell to reach an agreement by December 31, 2003 — have increasingly frustrated the United States and US President George W. Bush who has invested significant energy in trying to end what is now Africa’s longest running civil war.
The war erupted in 1983 when the south, where most observe Christianity and numerous traditional religions, took up arms to end domination by the wealthier, Islamic and Arabised north. Along with recurrent famine and disease, the conflict has claimed at least 1.5 million lives and displaced more than four million people, mostly in the impoverished south.
Since the December deadline was missed, various US officials have prodded Khartoum and the SPLA/M to reach a deal nearly every week since early March without success. On May 11, the State Department reported that the two sides had forged an agreement they would be ready to sign “any day now.”
Given past disappointments, Boucher was careful not to be overly optimistic, saying the United States had its “fingers crossed” that the three accords — which he said would be “major milestones” — would actually be signed.
However, the deals do not cover a separate 15-month conflict which is raging in Sudan’s western Darfur region and Boucher said Powell had made clear to Taha that the United States would not grant promised rewards to Khartoum for a deal with the SPLA/M unless Khartoum moved to ease the crisis there.
“The secretary has … made clear that we are not in a position to provide the kind of benefits or assistance that might flow from a peace agreement if the situation in Darfur persists,” he said.
At least 10,000 people have been killed in Darfur since rebels rose up in February 2003 — prompting an all-out assault by government forces and their militia allies — and where two million are deemed by the United Nations to be displaced or adversely affected by the conflict.