Sudan govt, SPLM/A seek funds for projects

KHARTOUM, Sudan, June 05, 2004 (PANA) — The Sudanese government and the
southern based rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army/Movement
(SPLA/M) are scheduled to sign Saturday in Nairobi an initial
framework peace agreement including all previous six protocols
reached to end Africa’s longest-running civil war.

This will be a follow-up to the accords signed on 26 May in the
Kenyan resort of Naivasha on how to share power and manage
disputed strategic areas.

Under those agreements, the government in Khartoum will hold 70
percent of executive and legislative seats in northern Sudan,
while the SPLA/M will hold the same in the south during a six-
year transition period, after which southerners would decide
through a referendum whether to be a part of united Sudan, or
secede.

Many donor countries, especially the US and Norway have
reportedly requested the former belligerents to group all the
protocols they have signed and present them in a nutshell to
donors conference to hold at the end of the current year.

The agreement, whose goal is to mobilise funds for the
rehabilitation of war-devastated infrastructure in southern
Sudan, will also be submitted to the G-8 summit in Georgia, US
from 6-8 June.

Foreign ministers from the regional Intergovernmental Authority
on Development (IGAD), which has steered the Sudanese peace
process since 1996, are scheduled to witness the accord’s
signing.

Representatives from the UN, US, European Union, Arab League
secretary general Amr Mousa, Egyptian foreign minister Ahmed
Maher as well as African and Arab diplomats are also expected to
attend the signing ceremony at the Kenyan state house in Nairobi.

Sudan’s Vice President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha and
the SPLA/M leader John Garang will initial framework peace
agreement.

Meanwhile, Khartoum published newspapers on Friday quoted South
Africa’s deputy foreign minister Aziz Pahad as saying his
government was ready to lead post-war reconstruction in Sudan.

Aziz promised that South Africa would consult the World Bank,
International Monetary Fund and other donors to assist in efforts
to rebuild Sudan’s infrastructure.

However, the optimism generated by the 26 May agreement has been
tempered by the ongoing conflict in western Sudan’s Darfur
region, where fighting between two rebel movements and Arab
militias has forced an estimated one million people to flee their
homes. The United Nations describes the situation in Darfur as
the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.