UN Secretary-General urges quick end to Sudanese peace talks

NAIROBI, Nov 18, 2004 (IRIN) — United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan
on Thursday called for a quick signing of a comprehensive peace agreement
between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People’s Liberation
Movement/Army (SPLM/A), saying such a deal would catalyse efforts to
resolve the conflict in the western region of Darfur.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan addresses journalists, Thursday, Nov. 18, 2004 during an extraordinary meeting by the U.N. Security Council in Nairobi, Kenya.. (AP).

“The effects of the delay [in signing a peace pact between Khartoum and
the SPLM/A] are felt not only in the south, but elsewhere too, as conflict
spreads to more parts of the country,” Annan told members of the UN
Security Council at a meeting in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. “The
devastating conflict in Darfur is glaring evidence of this.”

“There is no time to waste,” Annan added. “The speedy conclusion of the
North-South talks would not only curb the further spread of conflict to
other parts of the country, it would also serve as the basis and catalyst
for the resolution of existing conflicts.”

The SPLM/A leader John Garang said the convening in Nairobi of the
Council, dedicated to addressing the problems of civil strife in Sudan,
was a “positive gesture, which we most appreciate and welcome”. The
SPLM/A, he added, was committed to signing a comprehensive peace agreement
“within the shortest time possible” and hinted that might be achieved
before Christmas.

The US ambassador to the UN, John Danforth, and the Council’s president
for the month of November, told reporters on the sidelines of the meeting
that Khartoum and the SPLM/A would sign a “memorandum of understanding” on
Friday, committing themselves to signing the final settlement before the
end of the year.

Sudan’s Vice-President Ali Uthman Taha, who has been leading the
government’s delegation to peace talks in Kenya between Khartoum and the
SPLM/A, also expressed the government’s commitment to reaching a final
peace pact. “I wish to reiterate today the government is committed to
reaching peace in the Sudan,” Taha told the Council.

Annan deplored what he said was the worsening security situation in
Darfur. “I regret to report that the security situation in Darfur
continues to deteriorate, despite the ceasefire agreements signed earlier
in N’Djamena [Chad] and now reinforced in Abuja,” he told the Council.

“Both the government and its militias, as well as the rebel groups, have
breached agreements,” he added. “This has made humanitarian work by the UN
and our partners precarious and difficult, if not impossible.”

“Many innocent civilians continue to suffer as a result. This cannot be
allowed to continue. The strongest warning to all the parties that are
causing this suffering is essential. We cannot allow impunity,” said
Annan. “When – a sovereign state appears unable or unwilling to protect
its own citizens, a grave responsibility falls on the international
community, and specifically on this Council.”

The Council is expected to adopt a new resolution on Sudan on Friday,
according to Danforth, who said this would essentially be “a moving
forward resolution”, coming in the wake of previous resolutions on the
conflict in Darfur.

Annan said that the “terrible situation in Darfur has been brought about
mainly by deliberate acts of violence against civilians, including
widespread killing and rape. Because of the magnitude and intensity of the
human suffering in that region [Darfur], the conflict remains a burning
issue. Your draft resolution rightly reflects that concern.”

NGOs urge Council to act firmly

International non-governmental and human rights organisations had urged
the Council to use the meeting to ensure lasting peace in Sudan.

“The primary objective of the Council at its Nairobi meeting should be to
ensure that the government of Sudan and SPLM/A do not return to war,”
Refugees International (RI) said in a statement. “To that end, the
successful conclusion of a peace agreement should be encouraged with all
the vigor the Council can muster. Don’t let peace slip away in southern
Sudan.

“The Council meeting in Nairobi may be the last chance to rescue a peace
process that has begun to bog down,” RI official, Larry Thompson, said.
“It would be a human tragedy of major proportions if the ploughshares of
peace were turned back into the weapons of war in southern Sudan. Peace in
the largest country in Africa is worthy of the Council’s highest
priority.”

The New Sudan Council of Churches (NSCC) welcomed the meeting and urged
the Council to use its influence to enable a comprehensive peace.

“We re-affirm the principles which must underlie a just and enduring
peace: unity in diversity, general reconciliation and forgiveness, human
rights, justice, the right of self-determination, fundamental freedoms,
pluralism, transparency, and addressing the root causes of the different
conflicts in Sudan,” the NSCC said in a statement.

Oxfam said: “As the eyes of the world are on the Council’s unique meeting
in Nairobi and trip to the Great Lakes region, now is the time to address
forgotten African conflicts that have claimed millions of lives.”

“We urge the Council to turn words into concrete actions to stop the
ongoing violence and address the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. They must
also, together with the African Union, take early action in response to
new crises before they spiral out of control,” Oxfam’s Regional Director
Caroline Nursey said in a statement. It urged the Council to address the
situation in northern Uganda as well.

Human Rights Watch (HRW), in a statement issued on Thursday said: “The
impunity enjoyed by the Sudanese authorities in their ongoing atrocities
in Darfur demonstrates why the near-final peace deal to end the country’s
North-South conflict must include accountability for human rights abuses.”

“Unless they are held accountable for abuses in the south, the Sudanese
authorities will continue to believe they can get away with murder in
Darfur,” Jemera Rone, Sudan researcher for HRW said in the statement.
“There’s still time for Council members meeting in Nairobi to insist that
the final peace agreement includes accountability for past abuses and
protections against future ones.”

HRW called for the prosecution of those implicated in grave violations of
human rights and international humanitarian law in Sudan and the creation
of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to ensure full disclosure of
human rights abuses in the armed conflicts that have ravaged Sudan since
1983. It urged international mediators to insist that both the government
and rebels be held accountable for past abuses, including war crimes and
crimes against humanity.

On Tuesday, Amnesty International (AI), in a report titled: “Sudan: Arming
the perpetrators of grave abuses in Darfur”, accused foreign governments
of allowing the supply of various types of arms into Sudan.

“Foreign governments have enabled the government of Sudan to arm and
deploy untrained and unaccountable militias that have deliberately and
indiscriminately killed civilians in Darfur on a large scale – destroying
homes, looting property and forcibly displacing the population,” AI said.

“The tragedy of Darfur is that the international community, already
heavily engaged in the North-South peace process in Sudan, took far too
long to recognise the state-sponsored pattern of violence and displacement
and failed to act earlier to protect the population,” it added.

“[AI] specifically requests member states of the Security Council to
impose a mandatory arms embargo on Sudan to stop those supplies [from]
reaching the parties to the conflict in Darfur, including the government
forces, until effective safeguards are in place to protect civilians from
grave human rights abuses,” AI said.

The conflict in Darfur pits Sudanese government troops and militias allied
to it against the Sudanese Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and the
Justice and Equity Movement (JEM), who are fighting to end what they have
called marginalisation and discrimination of the region by the state. The
conflict has displaced an estimated 1.45 million people and sent another
200,000 fleeing across the border into Chad.

Talks in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, between the Sudanese government and
the rebels stalled early this month over a proposal to create a no-fly
zone in the troubled area. The SLM/A and JEM, which have fought the
government for the past 20 months, had agreed to sign the document, but
Khartoum did not.

The conflict between the SPLM/A and the Sudanese government in the south
erupted in 1983 when the rebels in the mainly Christian and animist region
took up arms against authorities based in the Muslim, largely Arabised
north to demand greater autonomy.

In May, both sides signed six key protocols during talks in Naivasha,
Kenya, covering power-sharing arrangements and the administration of three
contested areas during a six-year interim period that will precede a
referendum to determine whether the south would remain part of Sudan.

The Nairobi meeting is the fourth time that the Council has met away from
UN headquarters in New York, and its first formal meeting in the Kenyan
capital.

The Council consists of five permanent members – Britain, China, France,
Russia and the United States. The other non-permanent members are
currently Algeria, Angola, Benin, Brazil, Chile, Germany, Pakistan,
Philippines, Romania and Spain. The members are expected to travel to
Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Uganda after the
Nairobi meeting.