SA to play key role in Sudan's future
South Africa is set to play a leading role in rebuilding Sudan after a 21-year war officially came to an uneasy end with the signing of a preliminary peace agreement between the government and rebels from the country's southern region.
President Thabo Mbeki, who has been meeting Sudanese President Omar Hassan Ahmed el-Bashir in Khartoum, flew to the small town of Naivasha in Kenya on Friday to witness the signing of the Comprehensive Ceasefire Agreement and the Modalities for Implementation between the Government of Sudan and the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement (SPLM).
Although South Africa has not played much of a role in peace negotiations, it is chair of the African Union's Committee on Post-Conflict Reconstruction of the Sudan.
With the University of South Africa (Unisa), South Africa is to provide training for the SPLM leadership, led by long-time ANC friend Johnny Garang and other cadres.
'This is very important for the future of Sudan'
The aim is "to equip them with skills and experience that will enable them to participate equitably in the Transitional National Government of the Sudan", according to a department of foreign affairs statement in Pretoria.
The success of the peace process is also seen as essential for solving the ongoing crisis in the western Darfur region, where the African Union has a leading role, with some of the bigger powers, such as Britain, declaring themselves ready to insert a rapid deployment force.
About 70 000 people have been killed and a million displaced by militias sent by the Sudan government to quell a two-year rebellion there.
Friday's Foreign Affairs statement said, "Peace in Africa's largest country will not only be a victory for the people of the Sudan but also demonstrates the political will of the African leadership through the AU to create the conditions for peace, security and stability on the continent."
Accompanying Mbeki is a delegation of South African businessmen. A growing number of South African companies have shown an interest in Sudan, such as the Global Railway Engineering Consortium, which last month concluded a $21-million (R119,7-million) contract with the Sudanese Railway Corporation for rehabilitation of railways and rolling stock.
'It must be resolved on an urgent basis'
Soekor is involved in Sudan, as is Petrosa, which, in May, signed an agreement with the Sudanese state oil company, Sudapet, for oil concession rights.
In the mainly animist and Christian south rebels have been fighting the government since 1983, when Khartoum tried to impose Islamic law on the entire country.
Issues of oil, ethnicity and governance have complicated the conflict.
The Los Angeles Times reports that at the Friday signing, delegates from the warring sides initialled the two final chapters of an eight-part pact that spell out a power-sharing agreement and a permanent cease-fire.
The agreement, three years in the making, gives the southern rebels seats in the government, and guarantees them a stream of revenue from the country's oil wealth to spur development.
It also integrates the militaries, and grants the southern region a chance to opt for self-determination after six years.
A final peace accord is set for January 9 in Nairobi, Kenya, where Garang and Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha will sign all eight parts of the peace deal.
In November, the two leaders promised the United Nations Security Council and Secretary-General Kofi Annan during a special session in Nairobi that they would end the war by the end of the year as, they said, "a New Year's present" to the Sudanese people.
During the southern war, an estimated two million people died, mainly through starvation and disease, and about four million were displaced. People who helped negotiate the peace know that it will be even harder to implement it.
"This is very important for the future of Sudan and a major accomplishment," said John Danforth, US Ambassador to the UN. Danforth helped launch the peace talks in 2001 and orchestrated the special Nairobi session last month. "But there's more work to be done," he said.
The peace accord does not cover the separate conflict in western Darfur, which the US government called genocide.
"We have to be realistic that the problem of Darfur is still there," said Danforth.
"It must be resolved on an urgent basis."
President Mbeki and his delegation were scheduled to visit El Fashir in Darfur to meet local government leaders, the Command of the African Union Ceasefire Commission, its South African component of peacekeepers, and to inspect the Abu Shouk Refugee Camp. - Tribune Foreign Service
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