RUMBEK, Sudan, 24 January 2005 — Rebel leader John Garang said yesterday that Sudan’s unity was in the Khartoum government’s hands as his Sudan People’s Liberation Army prepared to ratify a landmark peace deal that promises a vote on independence for the south. “The challenge is on the north,” Garang told a news conference in Rumbek, the seat of the interim southern government.
“You can’t be calling for unity and you are asking me to be your inferior,” Garang said, referring to a widespread perception among southerners that they were treated as second-class citizens during two decades of civil war. Should there be a change in attitude, southerners will vote for unity, Garang said. If not, “then there is no chance for unity.”
Under the terms of a landmark peace agreement signed in Kenya on Jan. 9 to end two decades of war, Garang is to head an autonomous administration for the south during the six-year lead-up to the independence referendum.
Both the Khartoum government and fellow members of the Arab League have promised to invest heavily in the post-war reconstruction of the south in a bid to persuade southerners that it is not in their interests to break away. Some 1.5 million people died and another four million fled their homes during the civil war in south Sudan, Africa’s longest-running conflict. The rebels’ National Liberation Council, or parliament, began discussing the peace deal Saturday amid expectations it would be swiftly ratified.
More than half of the council’s 220 members were present for the debate, including delegates from the Nuba Mountains and southern Blue Nile, two areas of northern Sudan which have special provisions under the agreement.
Deputy speaker Gabriel Mathiang said he expected the deal to be approved today or tomorrow. “We shall pass it unanimously and without changes because this is an international agreement,” he said.
Earlier, Garang met UN envoy Jan Pronk for talks on the deal’s implementation. Pronk briefed the rebel leader on the mandate of the UN peace support mission due to be deployed in Sudan to ensure that both sides abide by the terms of the agreement, including a permanent ceasefire.
The UN Security Council has promised to consider sending aid and military observers to south Sudan as part of a peace support mission. But this will happen only after the mandate of the new mission has been approved, a process Pronk predicted could be completed by mid-February.
In another development, an armed forces official said yesterday that Darfur rebels have attacked and burned eight villages in western Sudan, killing dozens of civilians and looting their property. “A group of Darfur rebels attacked Al-Malam area, on the borders of North and South Darfur states,” an armed forces official, who declined to be named, told Reuters. He did not know which of the Darfur rebel groups was responsible. “They burned eight villages and killed many people,” the official said.
Two main rebel groups denied their troops were involved and said they were checking what happened. A statement from the office of the armed forces spokesman said dozens of civilians had been killed in the attack on Saturday and their homes looted. There are three recognized rebel groups in Darfur but other groups also operate, making it difficult to determine who carries out attacks in the vast region the size of France.
