Britain drafts UN resolution on Sudan peace accord

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 5 (AFP) — Britain on Friday circulated a draft UN resolution pushing for a comprehensive peace accord in Sudan that the Security Council expects to adopt at a rare meeting in Africa later this month.

Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir shakes hands with British Prime Minister Tony Blair at the presidential palace in Khartoum in Sudan, Oct 6, 2004.(AFP).

The measure “encourages the parties to redouble their efforts” to finalise a deal to end Africa’s longest running civil war, launched in 1983 by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) against the Khartoum government.

The international community has been hoping that a final accord in the north-south conflict, which has seemed close in recent months, could help ease the crisis in Sudan’s troubled western Darfur region.

The draft, obtained by AFP, also underlines the need for progress in deadlocked peace talks taking place in Nigeria between rebels in Darfur who launched a separate uprising in February 2003 against the Arab-led government.

That 20-month conflict has already left an estimated 70,000 dead and displaced some 1.5 million people in what the United States has called genocide and UN officials have called ethnic cleansing.

The Security Council will hold a formal meeting in Nairobi on November 18-19, only the fourth time it has done so outside UN headquarters in New York since 1952.

The council has already adopted two resolutions this year threatening sanctions against Khartoum if it does not rein in and disarm its proxy militias behind the bloodshed in Darfur.

But the United Nations’ envoy to Sudan, Jan Pronk, told the council on Thursday that it needed to do more, and raised the spectre of Darfur slipping into outright anarchy with the government no longer in full control of the situation.

“A comprehensive peace agreement will contribute to improved peace and stability throughout Sudan, including in Darfur,” the draft of the resolution says.

It also holds out the possibility of unspecified “further urgent action” against any party that does not heed the terms of the earlier resolutions on Darfur.

The African Union has announced plans to beef up its limited contingent of personnel in Darfur, where they have been tasked with overseeing the uncertain ceasefire with the rebels.

The Darfur crisis has complicated efforts to reach a final resolution in the separate north-south conflict — a fight between the ethnic black animist and Christian south against the Muslim, Arab-dominated government in the north.

That war, which has left at least 1.5 million people dead and displaced four million others, has also centre on control of natural resources, especially the 250,000 barrels of oil pumped out of mainly southern soil every day.

The last Security Council resolution on Darfur threatened international sanctions on Sudan’s oil industry, which is vital to the country, but appears to have achieved only limited progress.

The government in Khartoum and the SPLM/A rebels in the south adjourned peace talks in October for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

At the time, the two sides appeared to be very close to a final deal after signing six protocols on key political issues and leaving only technical issues on a comprehensive ceasefire and security arrangements to be ironed out.