Sudan southern peace pledge could end other conflicts: opposition

KHARTOUM, Nov 20 (AFP) — The Sudanese opposition and press Saturday hailed a pledge by the government and southern rebels to sign a final peace agreement by the end of the year and said it could help end other conflicts in the country.

Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Taha, left, shakes hands with Sudan People’s Liberation Movement leader John Garang, Friday, Nov. 19, 2004 during the U.N. Security Council meeting in Nairobi, Kenya. (AP).

Khartoum and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) had vowed in Nairobi a day earlier to sign the final peace agreement before December 31, and the UN Security Council urged the two sides to meet that deadline.

“We strongly and warmly welcome the two moves,” Communist Party spokesman Yusuf Hussein said.

“Procrastination in signing the peace agreement led to the emergence of new problems in Sudan,” Hussein told the independent Al-Adhwa daily newspaper.

A separate conflict in the western Darfur region between the government and rebel movements has left tens of thousands of people dead and displaced some 1.5 million in one of the world’s greatest humanitarian crises.

The Darfur conflict follows 21 years of civil war between Khartoum and the southern rebels, which has cost 1.5 million lives and displaced four million.

The opposition Democratic Unionist Party expressed hope the final agreement would coincide with the signing of similar accords in the Nigerian capital Abuja with the Darfur rebels and in Cairo with the rebel National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

“The three agreements would guarantee a comprehensive peace all over Sudan,” DUP Deputy Chairman Ali Mahmoud Hassanain was quoted by Akhbar Al Youm daily as saying.

NDA Secretary General Joseph Ukel said they had previously abandoned hope that a final peace agreement would be signed but “we have now been reassured after the government and SPLA signed this pledge in front of the 15 members of the Security Council.”

Meanwhile, the independent Al-Rai Al-Aam daily described as “advanced and historic” the Security Council resolution backing efforts for peace in the Sudan.

“The international community took an advanced step when the UN Security Council adopted a historic resolution in support of efforts by the Sudanese people for achieving peace and national reconciliation and establishing a united, prosperous homeland,” an editorial said.

The UN Security Council resolution dangles the prospect of massive development aid once the deal is struck, and suggests its signing would help to bring peace to other areas of Sudan, notably Darfur.