Sudan approves UN resolution 1590 on peacekeepers

KHARTOUM, Apr 10, 2005 (Xinhua) — The Sudanese cabinet on Sunday approved the UN Security Council’s resolution 1590 on sending more than 10,000-strong peacekeepers to Sudan.

Sudanese Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Basit Sabdarat told reporters that the cabinet received notes from Sudanese Ministries of Defense, Foreign Affairs, Justice and Interior on their views on the resolution.

Sabdarat said the cabinet had set up a committee including all relevant national circles to study the UN resolution 1590 and to reveal its content.

He added that the resolution came in response to a demand by the Sudanese government and it agrees with the provisions of the south Sudan peace agreement the Sudanese government signed with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) in January.

Sabdarat stressed that the UN resolution underlined the locations of the countries that will participate in the peacekeeping as well as the percentage of troops each country will contribute to the peacekeeping force.

The minister also ruled out any links of the UN peacekeeping troops to the Darfur conflict.

The UN Security Council voted unanimously in March to send 10, 000 troops and more than 700 civilian police to southern Sudan for an initial period of six months to support the comprehensive peace agreement which ended more than two decades of civil war.