Sudan’s Beshir vows to achieve peace in Darfur

KHARTOUM, Jan 12 (AFP) — Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir vowed Wednesday to achieve peace in the western region of Darfur the way he did in southern Sudan.

Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir addresses a crowd in Juba, Sudan Monday Jan. 10, 2004. (AP).

Addressing a joyous gathering of thousands of his party’s supporters at the ruling National Congress (NC) headquarters after return from Kenya and southern Sudan, Beshir said: “Our joy is incomplete because there is fighting … there are displaced people and refugees in Darfur.

“From now on we shall work for solving the conflict in Darfur and we shall bring about peace in Darfur as we did in the south. All our concern from now on will be the Darfur conflict and implementation of the peace agreement” with rebels in the south.

Beshir declared that Vice President Ali Osman Taha would be in charge of the negotiations with the Darfur rebels.

“We are optimistic with our brother Ali Osman Taha and, for this reason, he will supervise the Darfur negotiations to bring about peace,” he said.

Moving with difficulty through the thronging crowd toward the rostrum, Beshir danced to music played by southerners. On reaching the platform he chanted the usual “Allahu Akbar” (God is Greatest) and the southern equivalent “Allaluya”.

Beshir devoted much of his speech to greeting the souls of the “martyrs” who died in battle, naming dozens of them, including his late vice president Al-Zubair Mohamed Salih and deputy defence minister Ibrahim Shams Eddin, and those who lost limbs in fighting on both sides.

He pledged to implement “every provision of the agreement we have signed.”

NC Secretary General Ibrahim Ahmed Omar declared at the beginning of the gathering that the party would work for the success of the peace agreement.

“It is high time for action … our programme is to make the peace agreement a success.”

On Sunday, the government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement signed a peace accord in Kenya, ending 21 devastating years of war that claimed at least 1.5 million lives and displaced another four million people.

Under the peace deal, the south will enjoy a six-year period of autonomy followed by a referendum on independence.

The separate Darfur conflict started in February 2003, when people in the region rose up against what they felt was marginalisation by the government.

Around 70,000 people are estimated to have died, many from hunger and disease, in the past several months alone. Some 1.5 million others have been displaced, many into squalid and dangerous camps.