Making good on his promise to travel to southern Sudan when there is peace, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan Sunday held talks in Rumbek with John Garang, the Chairmen of the Sudan Liberation Peoples Movement (SPLM), and emphasized that a political settlement of that areas long-running conflict would contribute to a resolution in strife-torn Darfur, where he met with refugees and local leaders on Saturday.
In Rumbek, Mr. Annan and Dr. Garang discussed the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended years of war between north and south. The Secretary-General heard about the acute humanitarian needs in southern Sudan, which is experiencing a surge in unplanned voluntary return of refugees from abroad.
A sandstorm in Khartoum late in the day Sunday forced Mr. Annan to cancel his scheduled return to the Sudanese capital for a meeting with the Sudanese President.
Also while in Rumbek, the Secretary-General addressed the National Constitutional Review Commission, saying that a political settlement in southern Sudan would help achieve a resolution to the Darfur conflict.
– Your work is proving that the Comprehensive Peace Agreement is a roadmap to sustainable peace. This will give hope to the people of Darfur, he said.
Mr. Annan acknowledged the central role of the Sudanese in implementing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement but added that the international community must also deliver on promised support.
– I have appealed to them to do so and will continue to press for full and complete funding of humanitarian, recovery and development activities in Southern Sudan, he pledged.
He pledged to redouble his efforts to press the international community to make good on their pledges of humanitarian assistance. – Cash today is better than cash tomorrow, he said, adding “and it can save lots of lives.”
Delegates to the Commission will debate and review the draft Interim National Constitution, an effort considered essential to establishing the basis for the Government of National Unity and for the other institutions critical to the interim period.
Mr. Annan said those responsible for work on the constitution should strive to include a broad base of participants. “Civil society organizations, political parties, and the ordinary people of Sudan must feel part of what you are doing,” he said.
He also appealed for maintaining the “impressive array of human rights provisions” in the draft constitution.
On the UN mission in Sudan (UNMIS), which was created in response to the peace agreement, Mr. Annan said the first troops have been deployed to Kassala and more would soon follow in other areas.
– The United Nations will work with you until this peace has firmly taken root, he told those present, urging them to join forces to “build a new Sudan, free of conflict and fear and full of hope and prosperity.”
Kilde: FNs nyhedstjeneste
