UN Council heads to Kenya in quest for Sudan peace
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 15 (Reuters) – U.N. Security Council ambassadors head for Kenya on Tuesday to press for an end to the 21-year old civil war between Sudan and southern rebels and demand action to stop the separate conflict in Darfur.
The rare trip, only the fourth away from New York in more than 50 years, was organized by U.S. Ambassador John Danforth, who three years ago was the Bush Administration’s envoy, to jump-start the north-south talks.
Preliminary agreements have been signed and would change the structure of the Sudanese government, which has been at war for all but 11 years since independence from Britain in 1956.
A final accord is not expected to be completed this week in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi, where Khartoum has conducted talks with the southern rebels. At best, diplomats expect a memorandum setting a date for a completed peace pact by the end of the year.
Danforth said it was important for the Security Council “to impress upon both sides the urgency to completing the north-south peace process” and make sure agreements do not seem again as though “they’re written in disappearing ink.”
The 15 council ambassadors and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan will meet Sudanese ministers, rebel leaders and African officials.
A draft resolution to be adopted in Nairobi “encourages” the European Union, other nations and the World Bank to devise a development package, including possible debt forgiveness, for all parties in Sudan once a pact is concluded.
Little assistance will materialize if no progress is made in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, where 1.2 million African villagers have been driven from their homes by Arab militia, originally organized by Khartoum, in a campaign of rape, killings and pillaging.
“Obviously the rest of the world is not going to be there if they conclude a north-south peace agreement and then the next day start bombing villages in Darfur,” Danforth said.
SITUATION DETERIORATED
Last week the situation in Darfur deteriorated with Sudanese forcibly moving villagers out of camps back to their homes, where they feared militia attacks.
Worse yet, U.N. officials believe Khartoum has lost control over some Arab militia and that African rebels are deliberately provoking government officials and their allies so the international community will intervene.
Darfur’s complex war goes back to years of low intensity fighting between Arab nomads and mainly African farmers over dwindling water and arable land in Darfur’s sprawling desert. The Sudan Liberation Army has fought the government and its allies since early 2003.
On Darfur, however, the council is negotiating until the last minute, with Pakistan, Algeria and others asking for softer language and the United States and its allies refusing.
Nevertheless, all council members believe a settlement between Khartoum and the (southern) Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement would provide a political model for Darfur.
Six protocols have already been signed with the south. They include governmental power sharing and dividing the country’s oil wealth as well as integrated security forces. But the main outstanding issue is who pays for the military.
In six years, southerners would be entitled to a referendum to determine whether they want to form their own state.
In the past 21 years, 2 million people, mostly civilians, have died in violence in the south as well as disease and famine in a country rich in oil and composed of hundreds of ethnic, tribal and language groups.