Egypt to participate in Sudan peacekeeping mission

NEW YORK, June 01, 2004 (MENA) — The Egyptian government has initially agreed to take part in the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Sudan after the signing of the final peace agreement between the Khartoum government and the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM), an Egyptian diplomat said.

Egypt’s participation affirms “our commitment to contribute to the realization of peace and security in this sisterly country and maintaining its unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity, to create the proper climate for reconstruction and balanced development among its various provinces and to placing all its people on the road to progress and prosperity,” Egypt’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Ahmad Abu-al-Ghayt said Tuesday.

The UN General Secretariat is preparing for the formation of a mission that would oversee some parts of the implementation of the final peace agreement in south Sudan and would provide a main factor in international guarantees to implement the commitments of the parties to the agreement, he said.

The agreement, signed last Wednesday between the Khartoum government and SPLM in Naivasha, Kenya, involves three protocols and provides a very important step on the road to peace in Sudan.

The landmark agreement was the result of two years of strenuous negotiations.