US signs Sudan peace deal
2005-01-09 21:46
Nairobi - After signing an accord that ends the long-running civil war in Sudan's south, the United States expects immediate progress on the crisis in the western region of Darfur, US secretary of state Colin Powell said on Sunday.
He put Sudan's government on notice the prospect of good relations with the United States depends on halting the violence in Darfur.
"These new 'partners for peace' must work together immediately to end the violence and the atrocities that continue to occur in Darfur," Powell said.
"Not next month or in the interim period but right away, starting today," said the secretary, who signed on as a witness at the ceremony concluding an eight-year process to halt the war in the south.
The United States and other countries "expect the new partners to use all necessary means to stop the violence and we expect to see rapid negotiations on the crisis in Darfur," Powell said at the ceremony.
Tens of thousands of villagers have died since non-Arab rebels rose up in February 2003 against Sudan's Arab-dominated government and pro-government Arab tribal militia. Powell has called that conflict a genocide.
The completed southern peace deal lays out a lengthy process to merge the rebel movement that controls the south with the government in Khartoum in the north. During the war, more than 2 million or more people died.
Powell said peace in Sudan was a priority of the administration from its first days and that Bush "stayed personally involved to ensure our efforts in Sudan had the administration's highest level attention."
Joining Powell at the ceremony was the US ambassador to the United Nations, John Danforth. He was Bush's special envoy to the Sudan peace process.
After the signing, Powell offered hope for better relations with Sudan, which is on the US list of state sponsors of terrorism. But he added, "Achieving this positive relationship will only be possible in the context of peace throughout the country."
When black African tribes in Darfur rebelled in early 2003, they accused the national government of neglecting their interests. The Bush administration and Congress have used the term genocide to describe what followed.
Arab militias coupled with Sudanese military forces "committed large scale acts of violence, including murders, rape and physical assault on non-Arab individuals," a State Department report said last September.
- AP