News Article by AP posted on December 25, 2004 at 23:39:07: EST (-5 GMT)
Sudan and southern rebels to end 20-year civil war with Jan. 10 peace agreement
KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) -- The Sudanese government and the country's
main
southern rebel group will sign a peace agreement Jan. 10 in
Kenya to end more
than 20 years of civil war, a senior government
official said Saturday.
The government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army had
pledged to
finalize an agreement to end the longest-running war in
Africa by Dec. 31,
making a commitment last month before the U.N.
Security Council which held a
rare meeting in Nairobi to spur the
peace talks.
The north-south war has pitted Sudan's Islamic-dominated
government
against rebels seeking greater autonomy and a greater
share of the country's
wealth for the Christian and animist south.
The conflict is blamed for more
than 2 million deaths, primarily
from war-induced famine and disease.
Gutbi el-Mahdi, political adviser to President Omar el-Bashir,
told the
official Sudan Media Center that the government and SPLA
negotiators decided
to continue talks over the Christmas and New
Year holidays to resolve
outstanding differences before the
agreement is signed.
"The final signing for peace will be on Jan. 10 in the
presidential palace
in Nairobi," el-Mahdi told the media center,
adding that it would be a cause
for public celebrations both in the
north and the south of Sudan.
U.N. and U.S. officials are hoping that a solution to the civil
war --
which will include a new constitution and power-sharing
government for Sudan
-- will spur an end to the separate conflict
between government-backed forces
and rebels in the western Darfur
region.
An estimated 70,000 people have died in that conflict which has
driven 1.8
million from their homes since non-Arab rebel groups
took up arms in February
2003 against what they saw as years of
state neglect and discrimination
against Sudanese of African
origin.
The government responded with a counterinsurgency campaign in
which the
Janjaweed, an Arab militia, has committed wide-scale
abuses against the
African population.
The United States has accused the Janjaweed of committing
genocide and the
United Nations considers Darfur the world's worst
humanitarian crisis.
By contrast, an informal ceasefire in southern Sudan has largely
held for
the last two years while the government and southern
rebels conducted peace
talks in Kenya.
"All technical committees have ended their work except for
the
power-sharing committee, which is expected to finish its job at
any
moment," Sudan's independent newspaper Al-Sahafa quoted
Al-Dardiri
Mohammed Ahmed, a member of the government peace delegation,
as
saying Saturday.
When the latest negotiations began this month, both sides had
already
agreed on power and wealth sharing and how to integrate
their armed forces.
But there were a number of outstanding issues
including the size of the
armies of the north and the south and
funding for the southern armed forces
during the 6 1/2 year period
until a referendum on autonomy for that region
is held.
The top U.N. envoy to Sudan, Jan Pronk, told reporters at the
United
Nations on Dec. 14 that if a north-south agreement is
reached and signed in
early January, he envisions Security Council
adoption of a resolution in the
third week of January authorizing a
wide-ranging U.N. peacekeeping and
peace-building mission,
hopefully with 9,000 to 10,000 troops.
The United Nations already has pledges for the troops, including
from
southeast Asian nations Pronk wouldn't identify. But he said
it will take six
months to deploy the U.N. force in southern Sudan
where it will likely remain
through the referendum.
The U.N. force will not be deployed in Darfur
where the African
Union has deployed about 900 troops of an expected
4,000-strong
force.