Rebel leader says Sudan unity in Khartoum’s hands

RUMBEK, Sudan, Jan 23 (AFP) — Rebel leader John Garang said Sunday that Sudan’s unity was in the Khartoum government’s hands as his Sudan People’s Liberation Movement prepared to ratify a landmark peace deal that promises a vote on independence for the south.

Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) soldiers look at a copy of the comprehensive peace agreement, before their meeting in Rumbek, on Sunday, January 23, 2005. (AFP).

“The challenge is on the north,” Garang told a news conference in Rumbek, the seat of the interim southern government.

“You can’t be calling for unity and you are asking me to be your inferior,” Garang said, referring to a widespread perception among southerners that they were treated as second-class citizens during two decades of civil war.

Should there be a change in attitude, southerners will vote for unity, Garang said. If not, “then there is no chance for unity.”

Under the terms of a landmark peace agreement signed in Kenya on January 9 to end two decades of war, Garang is to head an autonomous administration for the south during the six-year lead-up to the independence referendum.

Both the Khartoum government and fellow members of the Arab League have promised to invest heavily in the post-war reconstruction of the south in a bid to persuade southerners that it is not in their interests to break away.

Some 1.5 million people died and another four million fled their homes during the civil war in south Sudan, Africa’s longest-running conflict.

The rebels’ National Liberation Council, or parliament, began discussing the peace deal Saturday amid expectations it would be swiftly ratified.

More than half of the council’s 220 members were present for the debate, including delegates from the Nuba Mountains and southern Blue Nile, two areas of northern Sudan which have special provisions under the agreement.

Deputy speaker Gabriel Mathiang said he expected the deal to be approved Monday or Tuesday.

“We shall pass it unanimously and without changes because this is an international agreement,” he said.

Earlier, Garang met UN envoy Jan Pronk for talks on the deal’s implementation.

Pronk briefed the rebel leader on the mandate of the UN peace support mission due to be deployed in Sudan to ensure that both sides abide by the terms of the agreement, including a permanent ceasefire.

“I briefed the SPLM on the comprehensive mandate we have in mind,” Pronk told reporters.

The UN Security Council has promised to consider sending aid and military observers to south Sudan as part of a peace support mission.

But this will happen only after the mandate of the new mission has been approved, a process Pronk predicted could be completed by mid-February.

Pronk encouraged the rebels to sign a “Status of Mission Agreement”, a document declaring consent to the deployment of the military observers and a force to protect them.

“We discussed a kind of agreement between the UN and the SPLM to start the operation as soon as they can sign,” said Pronk.

The United Nations has appealed to a number of countries to contribute personnel for the mission, but only a handful, including China, Malaysia and Pakistan, have responded, and the rebels have reservations about them.

“We have a balance between Islamic and non-Islamic countries, and the SPLM wants some time to think,” the UN envoy said. “We are using every positive answer,” he added.

Rebel leaders argue that countries such as China and Malaysia are too close to Khartoum due to the investments they have in the country’s lucrative oil sector and they have voiced concern about a conflict of interest.

“You need a neutral force,” Garang said. “We really need more consultations.”