UN envoy flies to S. Sudan to negotiate peacekeeping operation details

By RODRIQUE NGOWI, Associated Press Writer

RUMBEK, Sudan, Jan 17, 2005 (AP) — The top United Nations envoy to Sudan was flying to the country’s southern rebel stronghold on Tuesday to negotiate the deployment of a peacekeeping force to back an accord that officially ended 21 years of civil war in the region, U.N. officials said.

Jan Pronk, who was expected to arrive Tuesday afternoon, is scheduled to meet with rebel leaders to hammer out details of the deployment before U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan submits a report on the matter to the Security Council later this week, said U.N. spokeswoman Radhia Achouri.

Pronk is pressing rebels to authorize U.N. troops to carry weapons, and to enter and leave the region without applying for permits, U.N. officials said. Rebel officials declined to comment before the meeting.

This will be the first time Pronk meets with the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement since the group signed a peace deal with the Khartoum-based government on Jan. 9 in neighboring Kenya. Under the deal, former rebels are expected to lead a new government for the autonomous south and hold 30 percent of national posts.

Pronk will be accompanied by the U.N. force commander, a legal adviser and a political affairs officer at the talks in this arid, dusty town that was captured by the rebels in 1997, U.N. officials said.

Sudan’s two-decade civil war pitted the government, led by Arab Muslims who dominate the north, against rebels made up mainly of black Christians and animists, who are the majority in the south. The conflict is blamed for more than 2 million deaths, primarily from war-induced famine and disease.

U.N. and U.S. officials hope a solution to the civil war in the south will help end a separate conflict between government-backed forces and rebels in the western Darfur region, which has killed an estimated 70,000 and chased nearly 2 million from their homes.