Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Khartoum (Agenzia Fides)- Representatives of 32 different countries and international organisations met yesterday, 23 June in Washington to save the Southern Sudan peace agreement. The signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005, put an end to 20 years of civil war between the Khartoum government and the SPLM Southern Peoples Liberation Movement operating in the south of the country. The agreement led to an autonomous government for Southern Sudan led by the SPLM, and stipulated a referendum in 2011, for the people in the south to decide whether to remain within united Sudan, with considerable autonomy, or form an independent nation.
Despite the agreement, which includes SPLM representatives at the central government of Khartoum, fear and diffidence remain on both side, also because the 2005 agreement left certain issues unresolved delicate, such as the assignment to north or south of certain oil rich border areas. This has led to rearmament of troops by Khartoum and Southern Sudan. However tension in Southern Sudan, which recently exploded with serious acts of violence, led the US administration to promote the meeting in Washington.
Southern Sudan is a mosaic of tribes and people often in conflict over land and water resources. This tension was exploited during the conflict by the government of Khartoum, which funded "southerner" militia to fight against the SPLM. Fresh violence exploded in recent months. The most serious episode was on 12 June at Nasir, Upper Nile State, when about a hundred armed men, Jikany Nuer people, attacked a convoy of 31 ships, including 27 carrying World Food Programme food aid for 19,000 displaced Lou people living in a camp close to the city of Akobo. The attackers said the assault was necessary after 3 ships carrying arms for a rival militia group joined the convoy.
This episode rekindled fear that the central government is re-arming southerner militia in order to weaken the autonomous Southern Sudan government in view of the 2011referendum.
A new outbreak of war in Southern Sudan would aggravate the situation of the country which still has to deal with the conflict in its eastern region of Darfur. The International Penal Court has issued an arrest warrant for the Sudanese president Omar El Bachir, charged with committing war crimes in Darfur. Tsis has rendered more difficult efforts on the part of international diplomacy to find a resolution to the conflict in Darfur and prevent another war in Sudan. The meeting in Washington is therefore a step in the right direction. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 24/6/2009 righe 34 parole 486)
