Sudan Crises Spark Growing World Concern
KHARTOUM (AFP) — The UN's top official in Sudan held talks with a former rebel movement Saturday to try to reverse its decision to withdraw from the government in Khartoum, which has sparked worldwide concern.
Taye-Brook Zerihoun met members of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), including its leader Salva Kiir, during the talks in the southern capital Juba.
"He was briefed on the circumstances of the SPLM decision and on the way forward envisaged by the movement," said Radia Achouri, a spokeswoman for the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS).
Zerihoun said he was "encouraged" by the talks after the rebels "stated the government of the south will remain engaged in discussions and consultations with their partners (in the north)," according to Achouri.
She said the UN official planned to meet leaders of Sudan's dominant party, the National Congress of President Omar al-Beshir, "in the coming days".
The UN official's visit comes amid mounting concern among world powers over the stability of Sudan, already riven by conflict and a deepening humanitarian crisis in its western region of Darfur.
Now, the SPLM's decision to withdraw its 19 ministers and deputy ministers from government presents the first major threat to the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement which ended a 21-year civil war between the Muslim north and the predominantly Christian and animist south.
The pullout raised fears of complicating planned October 27 peace talks between Khartoum and rebels from Darfur, who accuse the military and allied militia of increasing attacks after four years of civil war.
The talks in the Libyan resort of Syrte are to be the latest international effort to end a four-year-old war the UN estimates has killed at least 200,000 people.
The SPLM said on Thursday it was withdrawing because Beshir's party had failed to uphold the peace agreement, while his National Congress has accused the SPLM of itself undermining the peace deal by its withdrawal.
The United States expressed concern on Friday over the withdrawal, saying the move, coupled with an upsurge in violence in Darfur, "threaten to set back efforts to achieve peace in Darfur and throughout Sudan".
US State Department spokesman Tom Casey called on both sides "to refrain from violence, immediately withdraw their armed forces along the north-south border" according to the deal, and "redouble their efforts to fully implement the agreement in good faith."
Washington's alarm at the pullout follows similar statements by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the office of EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
In New York, Ban's spokeswoman said "the secretary general is concerned about the decision by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement to suspend its participation in the Government of National Unity.
"He calls on both parties to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement to resolve the situation in a manner that preserves the integrity of the Agreement," Michele Montas added in a statement.
In Brussels, Solana spokeswoman Cristina Gallach said "we are very worried" about the SPLM decision over the CPA. "That is a fundamental instrument for the stability of Sudan," she told reporters.
In talks on Monday, EU foreign ministers will make "a clear appeal to everybody, the government in Sudan, the Sudanese of the south, to implement the Comprehensive Peace Agreement which is the one that holds together Sudan."
Gallach said the SPLM's move came as the EU prepares, with the United Nations, a difficult troop deployment to Chad and the Central African Republic to monitor camps holding people who have fled the violence in Darfur.
"If at the same time we have a destabilisation of the north-south of Sudan, we enter into a very complex situation," she said.
The SPLM has said key problems to working with Beshir's government were its failure to withdraw northern troops from the south, decide on the fate of the disputed oil-rich region of Abiye and "the evolution of democracy in Sudan."
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