Top State Department official to unveil large US contribution to Sudan

WASHINGTON, April 8 (AFP) — US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick will unveil during a donors conference next week in Oslo a significant US financial contribution in support of Sudan’s peace accord ending a 21-year civil war, a spokesman said.

Hundreds of thousands of people participate in a state-sponsored demonstration against UN demands for war crimes suspects, Khartoum April 5, 2005. (AFP).

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Zoellick will travel Monday to the International Donors Conference for Sudan held in Norway before heading to Sudan.

At the conference, Boucher said, “He is expected to announce the United States’ significant financial commitment to support full implementation of the Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement.”

The spokesman did not disclose the amount, but US officials Thursday confirmed a report in the Washington Times that they were ready to offer nearly 1.8 billion dollars in reconstruction, development and humanitarian aid to Sudan over the next two years.

Zoellick was to pledge 900 million dollars, already appropriated, in Norway. The US administration was to ask Congress for another 400 million dollars this year and a similar sum in the next budget, the Times said.

Sudan’s government and rebels in the country’s south signed a peace accord in January ending two decades of strife.

The donors’ conference will also focus on curbing violence in a separate conflict in Sudan’s western region of Darfur, Boucher said, adding that Zoellick was expected to travel to the African nation after the conference.

“Through his participation in the Donors Conference and visit to Sudan, the Deputy Secretary will emphasize the need for the Sudanese parties to move ahead with implementation of the peace accord, as well as to end violence in Darfur,” the spokesman said.

Boucher added that January’s North-South peace agreement also “provides a unique opportunity to end the violence in Darfur; we urge the Sudanese parties to grasp this opportunity to achieve peace and democracy in a unified country.”