Khartoum govt pledges to restore peace in troubled Darfur

KHARTOUM, Sudan, May 29, 2004 (PANA) — Praised by the international
community for its commitment to end Sudan’s 21-year-old
civil war in the south, the Khartoum government has
pledged to also settle the escalating conflict in
the western region of Darfur where two rebel movements
launched a revolt 2003.

“We assure you that the ongoing conflict in Darfur will
be settled soon, since the guns in the south has been
silenced we will work with the same determination
and decisiveness to find a remedy to any hotbed in
the Sudan,” Vice President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha
told government supporters Friday.

Taha, who led the government team that signed a ground
breaking peace deal with the south Sudan People’s
Liberation Army/Movement (SPLA/M) this week in Kenya,
promised to announce another “surprise event” soon,
but declined to elaborate.

He quoted the SPAL/M leader John Garang as saying “we are
fully committed to close the page of grievances and open
a new page of co-operation.”

Taha said the Khartoum government would continue efforts
to bridge the political, economic and cultural gaps
between the north and south of the country.

Meanwhile, some opposition parties have welcomed the
peace deal as one of the most important achievements
since the country’s independence from Britain in 1956.

The opposition National Umma Party of former Prime
Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi described the deal as “a great
step in the right direction,” and while commending the
accord, the opposition National Alliance Coalition (NAP)
urged all sides to fully implement it.

But the opposition National Popular Congress led by the
Hassan el-Turabi, who was re-arrested two months ago in
connection with an alleged aborted coup, rejected
the peace deal, saying it must be transformed into
a national agreement otherwise, “it will only be binding
on those who signed it.”

Civil war erupted in Sudan in 1983 after the south,
dominated by Christians and adherents of traditional
religion took up arms to end what they called domination
and marginalisation by the mainly Muslim north.

The war, unrelated to the crisis in Darfur, has killed
some two million people and displaced four million
others.