Sudan’s president starts tour of south to celebrate peace treaty

JUBA, Sudan, Jan 10, 2005 (AP) — Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir began a two-day tour of southern Sudan Monday to celebrate the landmark signing of a peace treaty to end the war that has plagued the country, as aid workers began to vaccinate 3.2 million children against polio.

Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir addresses a crowd in Juba, Sudan Monday Jan. 10, 2004. Southern Sudan will now get development instead of conflict, Sudan’s president told more than 10,000 people who packed a stadium to celebrate the end of a war that raged around this city for 21 years, killing, maiming and displacing millions of southern Sudan’s people. (AP).

“Our ultimate goal is a united Sudan , which will not be built by war but by peace and development,” el-Bashir told supporters in Juba, about 1,200 kilometers south of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. “You, the southerners, will be saying ‘we want a strong and huge state, a united Sudan .”‘

Juba was el-Bashir’s first stop on a two-day regional tour to celebrate Sunday’s signing of a peace treaty with rebel fighters from the Sudan People’s Liberation Army.

The government and rebels began fighting in 1983, leaving more than 2 million people dead, mainly through war-induced famine and disease, and displacing another 4 million people from their homes.

El-Bashir later flew east to another southern town, Torit, to celebrate the peace deal with local officials and inaugurate a power station before returning to Juba. He was expected to fly north to the Upper Nile state capital of Malakal early Tuesday for further celebrations before returning to Khartoum.

“We ask God to bless us to maintain the peace and stand united, not for the sake of Omar el-Bashir or (SPLA leader John) Garang, but for Sudan ,” said farmer Takmo Jeddy at the rally.

El-Bashir added that the money that has been spent on the war will be redirected to services and development in the south of Sudan .

On top of its human cost, the conflict ravaged infrastructure in oil-rich southern Sudan , which has seen virtually no development since the 1950s because of on-and-off conflicts and insecurity.

Experts predict oil and gas companies will rush in to expand Sudan ‘s oil production from the 345,000 barrels a day recorded in June 2004. Sudan has proven reserves of 635 million barrels, much of which was inaccessible during the war.

The peace accord will also turn Garang, a Juba native who opposed government forces for decades, into Sudan ‘s first vice president, while northerners and southerners will also share legislative power and natural resources. Southern Sudan ‘s 10 states will also be secular, while the north will practice Islamic law.

In Khartoum’s central Green Square, thousands of Garang supporters staged wild celebrations. An estimated 3 million southern Sudanese moved to the capital during the war.

The southern accord also has raised hopes a power-sharing formula can be reached to halt fighting in Darfur, a vast western region where tens of thousands of people have died in an almost two-year old conflict pitting rebels against government forces and allied Arab militias, known as the Janjaweed.

Also Monday, combatants temporarily laid down their guns to let about 5,000 health and humanitarian workers and volunteers begin immunizing 1.3 million Darfur children against polio.

The three-day polio program, which will see 40,000 people immunizing 6 million children across the country, is being coordinated by the Sudanese Health Ministry, World Health Organization and the U.N. children’s fund, UNICEF.

Another 1.9 million children living in SPLA-controlled southern Sudan will begin being immunized Jan. 17.

Polio re-emerged last year after its eradication in April 2001. Some 112 people have so far been detected with the virus in 17 of Sudan ‘s 26 states. Most have been reported in Khartoum, followed by Red Sea state and Darfur.

Keith McKenzie, UNICEF’s special representative to Darfur, flew with three vaccination teams to Jebel Mara, a rebel-controlled mountain region in north Darfur that has been off limits to aid workers since fighting began.

“With the signing of the southern peace treaty and three days of tranquility here for the polio program, the time is opportune to push for lasting peace in Darfur,” McKenzie said.