US hails Sudan peace pledge, UN support for Somalia

WASHINGTON, Nov 19 (AFP) — The United States lauded a deal signed by Sudan’s government and southern rebels to wrap up marathon peace talks by year’s end and backed a UN Security Council pledge to help restore viable government in Somalia.

U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Danforth in a pensive mood, Friday, Nov. 19, 2004 before the start of the U.N Security Council meeting in Nairobi, Kenya. (AP).

The State Department said the two efforts — both raised at a special US-proposed Security Council meeting in Nairobi — were critical to stability in the Horn of Africa and urged parties to both conflicts to act rapidly to meet their stated objectives.

Earlier Friday in Nairobi, Khartoum and the southern rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) vowed to sign a final accord ending a two-decade war in southern Sudan by the end of the year as the Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution pushing for peace.

“The declaration reaffirms the parties’ commitment to expeditiously conclude the comprehensive peace agreement by the end of the year and Resolution 1574 underscores the international community’s support for the peace process and for an end to the violence in Darfur,” deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said.

“We are hopeful that a rapid conclusion of the north-south talks will also provide a political basis for the resolution of other conflicts in Sudan, including the conflict in Darfur,” he told reporters.

The United States has long pushed for a settlement to the north-south conflict, the world’s longest running civil war, and has secured similar promises from Khartoum and the SPLA/M in the past, most notably in October 2003, when the two sides plegded to visiting US Secretary of State Colin Powell that they would conclude a deal by last December 31.

But efforts at a resolution has been distracted by the surge in the conflict in Darfur and the new UN resolution dangles the prospect of massive development aid once a deal is struck.

It also suggests that a north-south accord would help to bring peace to other areas of Sudan, notably Darfur, which is now suffering from what the UN terms the world’s worst current humanitarian crisis.

The resolution, adopted in the council’s first meeting outside its New York headquarters since 1990, demands that government and rebel forces in Darfur, where war erupted in February 2003, halt all violence and cease the forcible relocation of civilians.

On Somalia, where international efforts to end a chaotic 13-year-old power vacuum have recently borne fruit with the election of a new president, Ereli said Washington was cautiously optimistic that stability might take hold.

He noted that the Security Council adopted a presidential statement on Somalia, welcoming the recent developments toward setting up a government, including the election of Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed as president.

“After 13 years, the possibility of reestablishing a government in Somalia may finally be on the horizon but that will require sustained commitment and goodwill from all Somalis,” Ereli said.

“We urge the transitional federal president, prime minister and assembly to focus on the immediate task at hand, which is the establishment of an effective government operating inside Somalia,” he said.

Somalia has not had a proper government for well over a decade. When dictator Mohammed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991, the country became a battleground for competing warlords.

UN troops were deployed in Somalia between 1992 and 1995, but became embroiled in clashes and failed to fully address the humanitarian crisis and famine.