Sudan stably advances implementation of peace agreement in Darfur
24/4/2007 16:55
The Transitional Darfur Regional Authority (TDRA) was inaugurated in
Khartoum yesterday, marking a significant step of implementing a peace deal
signed last year to solve the Darfur issue.
In the meantime, Majzoub
al-Khalifa, an adviser of Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir, told the Sudanese
parliament yesterday that the implementation of the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA)
had entered "an advanced stage."
Al-Khalifa, who used to be the head of the
government delegation conducting the peace talks in the Nigerian capital of
Abuja before the peace deal was signed, expected the negotiations would restart
soon between the government and some rebel movements.
He said that many steps
had been taken for the implementation of the DPA, including the affiliation of
signatories of the peace agreement to the central government in Khartoum and
local governments in Darfur.
Mini Arkou Minawi, head of the former rebel
Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), described yesterday's inauguration of the TDRA
as " the real beginning of the implementation of the DPA."
After signing the
DPA with the government in Abuja on May 5, 2006, Minawi was appointed by the
Sudanese president in August as his senior assistant, the number-four in the
government alignment only after the president and two vice presidents, and the
chairman of the TDRA.
He announced that the TDRA began to carry out its
political, security, economic and humanitarian duties, adding that it was to
exert efforts to rebuild and rehabilitate the Darfur region, realize a
comprehensive development and provide basic services for local
residents.
Following the inauguration ceremony, the TDRA held its first
meeting to discuss its next steps to enhance the implementation of the DPA and
to improve the general situation in Darfur.
Meanwhile, Egyptian Foreign
Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit paid a brief visit yesterday in Khartoum, during which
he delivered a message to the Sudanese president from his Egyptian counterpart
Hosni Mubarak on the bilateral relations and latest developments in
Darfur.
Abul Gheit stressed his country's support for the efforts exerted by
the Sudanese government to end the crisis in Darfur.
He said that Egypt had
noticed in the recent period "an active respond" of Khartoum to international
demands after it had accepted the light and heavy support packages from the UN
to the African Union (AU) peacekeeping force in Darfur.
"We encourage this
development and help Sudan overcome this crisis," the Egyptian foreign minister
said.
The Sudanese government announced on April 16 its acceptance of the
heavy support package from the UN for the AU force in Darfur, according to which
3,000 additional soldiers and policemen and six attack helicopters will be sent
by the UN to the region.
The heavy support package is the second phase of a
three-phase UN plan regarding the deployment of a UN-AU hybrid force in the
war-torn region.
During the undergoing first phase, the light support
package, including 105 officers, 33 police advisers and 48 civilian officials,
is being delivered to reinforce the 7,800-strong AU force.
Abul Gheit said
that his visit to Khartoum was aimed at coordinating positions with Sudan in
order to boost the peace process and to reunite the positions of the armed
groups in Darfur preparing for a multipartite meeting to be held in the Libya
capital of Tripoli next week.
The meeting is to be attended by ministers from
Egypt, Libya, Sudan, Chad, Eritrea and officials and representatives of the
United States, the UN, the AU and the European Union.
The visit of Abul
Ghait, who was accompanied by Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, came as
Eritrean President Issayas Aferwerki was winding up a three-day official visit
in Sudan, where he held a meeting with the Sudanese president and paid a tour to
southern Sudan.
Eritrea, which successfully sponsored the peace negotiations
between the Sudanese government and the rebel groups in eastern Sudan last year,
has played a mediation role between Khartoum and the Darfur rebel
movements.
Some one million civilians have been displaced and a number of
civilians have been killed since tribal clashes and anti- government rebellion
erupted in February 2003.
The Sudanese government is currently under mounting
pressures from the United States and some other western countries for the
deployment of UN peacekeepers in Darfur.
On Saturday, UN Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon called on the Security Council to allow more time for diplomacy
before considering whether to impose further economic and military sanctions on
Sudan over the situation in Darfur.
The Sudanese government has asked the
international society to exert more pressures on the rebel movements which had
not signed the DPA to go back to the negotiation table.
"Despite the efforts
of pushing the non-signatories to join the peace process, the rebel movements
have not taken any positive action toward the peace," al-Khalifa said.
He
said that the tribal clash was one of the major threats for the peace, denying
any infringement had been committed by the government and the signatories of the
DPA in Darfur.
Xinhua
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