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News :: Civil & Human Rights : International Relations : Peace |
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UN Secretary-General urges quick end to peace talks |
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by Africafiles via S. Edwards/CERRV
Email: scottisimo (nospam) hotmail.com (verified) |
19 Nov 2004
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SUMMARY & COMMENT: United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on
Thursday called for a quick signing of a comprehensive peace agreement
between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People’s Liberation
Movement/Army (SPLM/A), saying such a deal would catalyse efforts to
resolve the conflict in the western region of Darfur. |
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TITLE: UN Secretary-General urges quick end to peace talks
AUTHOR: IRIN
CATEGORY: Sudan
DATE: 11/18/2004
SOURCE: IRIN News
ReportID=44205
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UN Secretary-General urges quick end to peace talks
Kofi Annan listens to tribal leaders during a visit to Darfur in July
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday called for a
quick signing of a comprehensive peace agreement between the Sudanese
government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A),
saying such a deal would catalyse efforts to resolve the conflict in the
western region of Darfur. "The effects of the delay [in signing a peace
pact between Khartoum and the SPLM/A] are felt not only in the south,
but elsewhere too, as conflict spreads to more parts of the country,"
Annan told members of the UN Security Council at a meeting in the Kenyan
capital, Nairobi. "The devastating conflict in Darfur is glaring
evidence of this."
"There is no time to waste," Annan added. "The speedy conclusion of the
North-South talks would not only curb the further spread of conflict to
other parts of the country, it would also serve as the basis and
catalyst for the resolution of existing conflicts." The SPLM/A leader
John Garang said the convening in Nairobi of the Council, dedicated to
addressing the problems of civil strife in Sudan, was a "positive
gesture, which we most appreciate and welcome". The SPLM/A, he added,
was committed to signing a comprehensive peace agreement "within the
shortest time possible" and hinted that might be achieved before
Christmas.
The US ambassador to the UN, John Danforth, and the Council’s president
for the month of November, told reporters on the sidelines of the
meeting that Khartoum and the SPLM/A would sign a "memorandum of
understanding" on Friday, committing themselves to signing the final
settlement before the end of the year.
Sudan’s Vice-President Ali Uthman Taha, who has been leading the
government’s delegation to peace talks in Kenya between Khartoum and the
SPLM/A, also expressed the government’s commitment to reaching a final
peace pact. "I wish to reiterate today the government is committed to
reaching peace in the Sudan," Taha told the Council.
Annan deplored what he said was the worsening security situation in
Darfur. "I regret to report that the security situation in Darfur
continues to deteriorate, despite the ceasefire agreements signed
earlier in N’Djamena [Chad] and now reinforced in Abuja," he told the
Council. "Both the government and its militias, as well as the rebel
groups, have breached agreements," he added. "This has made humanitarian
work by the UN and our partners precarious and difficult, if not
impossible."
"Many innocent civilians continue to suffer as a result. This cannot be
allowed to continue. The strongest warning to all the parties that are
causing this suffering is essential. We cannot allow impunity," said
Annan. "When - a sovereign state appears unable or unwilling to protect
its own citizens, a grave responsibility falls on the international
community, and specifically on this Council."
The Council is expected to adopt a new resolution on Sudan on Friday,
according to Danforth, who said this would essentially be "a moving
forward resolution", coming in the wake of previous resolutions on the
conflict in Darfur. Annan said that the "terrible situation in Darfur
has been brought about mainly by deliberate acts of violence against
civilians, including widespread killing and rape. Because of the
magnitude and intensity of the human suffering in that region [Darfur],
the conflict remains a burning issue. Your draft resolution rightly
reflects that concern."
NGOs urge Council to act firmly
International non-governmental and human rights organisations had urged
the Council to use the meeting to ensure lasting peace in Sudan. "The
primary objective of the Council at its Nairobi meeting should be to
ensure that the government of Sudan and SPLM/A do not return to war,"
Refugees International (RI) said in a statement. "To that end, the
successful conclusion of a peace agreement should be encouraged with all
the vigor the Council can muster. Don’t let peace slip away in southern
Sudan.
"The Council meeting in Nairobi may be the last chance to rescue a peace
process that has begun to bog down," RI official, Larry Thompson, said.
"It would be a human tragedy of major proportions if the ploughshares of
peace were turned back into the weapons of war in southern Sudan. Peace
in the largest country in Africa is worthy of the Council’s highest
priority."
The New Sudan Council of Churches (NSCC) welcomed the meeting and urged
the Council to use its influence to enable a comprehensive peace. "We
re-affirm the principles which must underlie a just and enduring peace:
unity in diversity, general reconciliation and forgiveness, human
rights, justice, the right of self-determination, fundamental freedoms,
pluralism, transparency, and addressing the root causes of the different
conflicts in Sudan," the NSCC said in a statement.
OXFAM said: "As the eyes of the world are on the Council’s unique
meeting in Nairobi and trip to the Great Lakes region, now is the time
to address forgotten African conflicts that have claimed millions of
lives." "We urge the Council to turn words into concrete actions to stop
the ongoing violence and address the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. They
must also, together with the African Union, take early action in
response to new crises before they spiral out of control," Oxfam’s
Regional Director Caroline Nursey said in a statement. It urged the
Council to address the situation in northern Uganda as well.
Human Rights Watch (HRW), in a statement issued on Thursday said: "The
impunity enjoyed by the Sudanese authorities in their ongoing atrocities
in Darfur demonstrates why the near-final peace deal to end the
country’s North-South conflict must include accountability for human
rights abuses." "Unless they are held accountable for abuses in the
south, the Sudanese authorities will continue to believe they can get
away with murder in Darfur," Jemera Rone, Sudan researcher for HRW said
in the statement. "There’s still time for Council members meeting in
Nairobi to insist that the final peace agreement includes accountability
for past abuses and protections against future ones."
HRW called for the prosecution of those implicated in grave violations
of human rights and international humanitarian law in Sudan and the
creation of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to ensure full
disclosure of human rights abuses in the armed conflicts that have
ravaged Sudan since 1983. It urged international mediators to insist
that both the government and rebels be held accountable for past abuses,
including war crimes and crimes against humanity.
On Tuesday, Amnesty International (AI), in a report titled: "Sudan:
Arming the perpetrators of grave abuses in Darfur", accused foreign
governments of allowing the supply of various types of arms into Sudan.
"Foreign governments have enabled the government of Sudan to arm and
deploy untrained and unaccountable militias that have deliberately and
indiscriminately killed civilians in Darfur on a large scale -
destroying homes, looting property and forcibly displacing the
population," AI said.
"The tragedy of Darfur is that the international community, already
heavily engaged in the North-South peace process in Sudan, took far too
long to recognise the state-sponsored pattern of violence and
displacement and failed to act earlier to protect the population," it
added. "[AI] specifically requests member states of the Security Council
to impose a mandatory arms embargo on Sudan to stop those supplies
[from] reaching the parties to the conflict in Darfur, including the
government forces, until effective safeguards are in place to protect
civilians from grave human rights abuses," AI said.
The conflict in Darfur pits Sudanese government troops and militias
allied to it against the Sudanese Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and
the Justice and Equity Movement (JEM), who are fighting to end what they
have called marginalisation and discrimination of the region by the
state. The conflict has displaced an estimated 1.45 million people and
sent another 200,000 fleeing across the border into Chad.
Talks in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, between the Sudanese government
and the rebels stalled early this month over a proposal to create a
no-fly zone in the troubled area. The SLM/A and JEM, which have fought
the government for the past 20 months, had agreed to sign the document,
but Khartoum did not. The conflict between the SPLM/A and the Sudanese
government in the south erupted in 1983 when the rebels in the mainly
Christian and animist region took up arms against authorities based in
the Muslim, largely Arabised north to demand greater autonomy.
In May, both sides signed six key protocols during talks in Naivasha,
Kenya, covering power-sharing arrangements and the administration of
three contested areas during a six-year interim period that will precede
a referendum to determine whether the south would remain part of Sudan.
The Nairobi meeting is the fourth time that the Council has met away
from UN headquarters in New York, and its first formal meeting in the
Kenyan capital. The Council consists of five permanent members -
Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States. The other
non-permanent members are currently Algeria, Angola, Benin, Brazil,
Chile, Germany, Pakistan, Philippines, Romania and Spain. The members
are expected to travel to Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Rwanda and Uganda after the Nairobi meeting. |
This work is in the public domain |
