UN envoy warns on possible failure of Sudan peace accord

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Feb 5, 2005 (PANA) — UN envoy Jan Pronk has warned
that the recent peace agreement that ended Sudan’s long
civil war in the south could fail if there was no end to
the bloodshed in the western region of Darfur.

The Khartoum government and the Sudan People’s Liberation
Army/Movement (SPLA/M) signed the historic peace deal in
Kenya 9 January, capping some three years of negotiations
to the long-running conflict in the south of the country.

But another war is raging in the western region of Darfur.

“I am convinced that without a solution in Darfur, the
north-south will not maintain a sustainable peace
agreement,” Pronk told UN Security Council Friday, in
a report widely quoted by Sudanese papers Saturday.

The envoy is asking for a UN peace-keeping force of more
than 10,000 to oversee implementation of the north-south
accord.

UN estimates put at 70,000 the death toll in Darfur, where
some two million other people have been displaced by the
fighting which erupted in February 2003.

The UN panel which investigated alleged human rights abuses
in the region said in its report that while there was no
deliberate government policy to commit genocide in Darfur,
government forces, militia and rebel groups committed war
crimes that should be referred to the International Criminal
Court for trial.

Sudanese Justice Minister Ali Mohamed Osman Yasuin told
reporters in Khartoum Friday the Khartoum government had
already reacted to the report.

He also said the government had amended more than 60 laws
to comply with the recent peace agreement it signed with
the SPLA/M.

Yasuin said a joint legal committee would be formed by the
government, the SPLA/M and other Sudanese political and
civil organisations to draft a transitional constitution
in accordance with the peace deal.