UN’s Annan hails Sudan peace deal
UNITED NATIONS, May 26, 2004 (Xinhua) — UN Secretary General Kofi Annan hailed Wednesday’s peace protocols signed between the Sudanese government and main rebel group as a major step forward for peace.
“He welcomes this development and believes it is a major step forward,” Annan’s spokesman said in a statement.
“The United Nations stands ready to contribute to the efforts of the international community to help implement a peace agreement,” the statement said.
The Sudanese government and the rebel Sudan People’s LiberationMovement/Army signed three key peace protocols here late Wednesday,paving the way for a full ceasefire and implementation pact to enda war that has cut Africa ‘s biggest country in two for over two decades.
Sudanese First Vice President Ali Osman Taha and SPLM/A leader John Garang exchanged the three protocols, to resolve the issues of power sharing, the two disputed areas of Nuba (Kordofan) Mountains and Southern Blue Nile, and another disputed area of Abyei, respectively.
However, the deals do not cover a separate 15-month conflict raging in the Sudan’s western Darfur region, which the United Nations says is one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
In a speech at the signing ceremony, Taha said, “This is a day for the Sudan for development to achieve peace and stability.”
“It is also a step forward toward finalizing a comprehensive peace agreement in the Sudan,” he added.
Following the signing of the protocols, the technical and military aspects of a ceasefire are the only remaining obstacles to the comprehensive peace accord to end Africa’s longest-running conflict.
Meanwhile Garang said that “the protocols signed have laid the foundation for the enduring peace in the Sudan” and that he looks forward to a brighter future for the Sudanese people in the whole country.
Representing Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, Foreign Minister Kalonzo Musyoka said, “This is a victory not only for the people of the Sudan, who are so passionately thirsty for peace and stability for their country, but also for the entire continent.”
“These agreements represent a monumental step forward and testify to the desire of all the people of the Sudan to unite in their diversity,” he added.
The last-minute haggling between the two parties had delayed the signing ceremony, keeping hundreds of people, who wished to witness the significant moment, waiting for nearly a whole day outside the talks’ venue near the Kenyan town of Naivasha, some 90km northwest of the capital Nairobi.
Kenyan government officials and foreign dignitaries, including United States Acting Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Charles Snyder, African Union Commission Chairperson Alpha Oumar Konare, Norwegian International Development Minister Hilde Frafjord Johnson and the Kenyan foreign minister, witnessed the signing ceremony.
The Sudanese civil war broke out in 1983 when the SPLM/A took up arms fighting for self-determination in the southern part of the country, leaving some two million people dead, mostly through war-induced famine and diseases.
The Sudanese government and the SPLM/A began peace talks in March 1994 in Kenya, under the auspices of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, a seven-member regional group in east Africa, consisting of Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Uganda, Eritrea, Somalia and the Sudan.