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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
SUDAN: Southern agreement key to Darfur peace - UN
NAIROBI, 15 Dec 2004 (IRIN) - The settlement of the long-running conflict in southern Sudan between Khartoum and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), is key to solving the humanitarian crisis in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, a UN envoy said.
Jan Pronk, the Secretary-General's representative in Sudan, told a news conference in New York on Tuesday that a peace accord in the south would lead to a new constitution and a new government which would be sympathetic to the situation in Darfur and more open to negotiation.
With a 31 December deadline for concluding a peace agreement between the government and the SPLM/A fast approaching, Pronk urged the major global players - including the five permanent members of the Security Council - to present a unified position.
"If the Sudanese government and the rebels were faced with a unified front, with the powerful nations in the world saying that they would not tolerate non-compliance with the Council's resolution, the parties would have no choice but to come up with a negotiated political solution," Pronk was quoted by UN News service as saying.
The Sudanese government and the SPLM/A last month signed a memorandum of understanding at an extraordinary session of the Security Council in Nairobi, Kenya, pledging to conclude a final peace accord by the end of the year.
"The mood is good and I would say the chances are positive," Pronk said, adding there still remained the "extremely difficult" bone of contention on the size and financing of the army.
Pronk was in New York to discuss preparations for a possible deployment of more personnel for the UN Advance Mission in the Sudan (UNAMIS). He said he already had several firm offers for troops "from a number of South Asian countries".
In Khartoum, UNAMIS spokeswoman, Radia Achouri, told reporters that fighting had continued in areas east and southeast of Nyala town in South Darfur.
"In addition to the incident involving SC-UK staff members, fighting was reported in the villages of Bashom, Eida, Ishma, Um Zehefa, Reil and surrounding areas to the east of these locations on 12 and 13 December," she said. "The reported build-up of rival armed groups in these areas has raised serious concerns in the humanitarian community."
In its latest "humanitarian profile" on Darfur, released on Tuesday, UNAMIS reported that an estimated 1.65-million people had been displaced by fighting in Darfur, while more than 2.2 million had been affected by the conflict.
The war in Darfur pits the Sudanese government troops and militias, allegedly allied to the government, against rebels fighting to end what they have called marginalisation and discrimination of the region's inhabitants by the state. The UN has described the Darfur conflict as one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
The war between the SPLM/A and the Sudanese government in the south erupted in 1983 when the rebels took up arms against authorities based in the north to demand greater autonomy.
The peace talks between Khartoum and the SPLM/A have been going on in the Kenyan town of Naivasha since mid-2003.
[ENDS]
This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2004
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