Remember Darfur?

"It is important to make sure that the international community does not forget Darfur," Antonio Guterres told a press conference held Wednesday in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. "Darfur without peace is a tragedy that we cannot imagine. Peace is not only an opportunity but an obligation."

The meeting followed a 10-day visit by Guterres to Sudan, Chad and Kenya during which he toured camps for those displaced by conflict in Sudan.

About two million people have been forced to leave their homes since the start of fighting in Darfur, in February 2003 - while 300,000 have reportedly been killed. A number of the displaced have settled in camps in Sudan; 200,000 have crossed the border into Chad, according to the UNHCR.

In early 2003, rebels from the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) struck government positions to protest against the alleged neglect of communities in Darfur. Authorities retaliated by attacking settlements of the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups, viewed as being sympathetic to the rebels.

Government has also been accused of backing Arab militants known as the "janjaweed" ("men on horseback") in a campaign against the three groups that has included widespread killings, the destruction of villages and crops û and mass rape.

Rebels and Sudanese officials have embarked on talks mediated by the African Union (AU). However these negotiations, which have been taking place in the Nigerian capital of Abuja, have achieved little to date û with both sides accusing each other of violating a ceasefire signed in November 2004. The 52-member AU announced last week that talks would resume Sep. 15.

Guterres fears that ongoing conflict in Darfur may undermine an agreement to end another civil war in Sudan: the 21-year battle between Khartoum and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A).

The SPLM/A took up arms against the Muslim government in a bid to gain religious and political autonomy for the predominantly Christian and animist south. In January this year the two parties signed a peace agreement that has resulted in a transitional government of national unity, with the eventual possibility of independence for southern Sudan.

Fighting in the south has resulted in more than two million deaths, and the displacement of over four million persons. About 500,000 refugees have fled to Kenya, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to the UNHCR.

The recent death of SPLM/A Chairman John Garang also prompted concerns about the durability of peace in southern Sudan. The former rebel leader, who had become vice president of Sudan under the January accord, was killed in a helicopter crash in July.

Guterres expressed the hope that the new SPLM/A head, Salva Kiir Mayardit, would ensure January's agreement was fully implemented.

"The new leader has shown enormous courage and a lot of wisdom, and this gives us hope that peace will not be affected," he said.

Guterres further noted that development had to be accelerated in southern Sudan.

"We need the international community to be hugely involved in investment in southern Sudan in order for conditions to be established that will ensure the successful return of the IDPs (internally displaced persons) back to their homes," he observed. "We want people to go back home, but we want them to go back in dignity to a region with at least basic infrastructure."

At a conference held in the Norwegian capital, Oslo, earlier this year, the international community pledged to raise about seven billion dollars to fund development in Sudan û particularly the south of the country.

At present, this region is without tarred roads. In the administrative capital of Rumbek, rusty tanks and the shells of bombed buildings bear mute witness to the fact that the town has lived through more than two decades of civil war.

The UNHCR is involved in demining initiatives in Sudan, and in digging boreholes û this in preparation for the voluntary repatriation of Sudanese refugees from Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and the DRC. Repatriation of these persons is set to begin after the rainy season in October. (END/2005)

Source: IPS - Inter Press Service News Agency

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