UN EXTOLS SUDANESE PEACE PACT PARTNERS ON FORMING A NEW GOVERNMENT
The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Sudan (UNMIS) today congratulated the partners to the 2005 peace accord that ended the country's north-south civil war on the formation of a new Government.
In a press statement, UNMIS voiced hope that the new Sudanese Government “will persevere in its resolve for achieving a stable and durable peace.”
It called for the “credible referenda” to be carried out in southern Sudan and Abyei, slated for early next year, which are meant to be the final phase of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which ended 20 years of fighting between the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA) separatists in the south and the national Government in the north.
The referenda include a vote on whether the south of the vast country should secede from Sudan.
The mission today also underlined the need for “realizing the popular consultations” in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile states.
The new Government, UNMIS said, “shoulders the historic responsibility of implementing the CPA during the final year of the Interim Period.”
The mission repeated its commitment to the full implementation of the CPA and underlined its readiness to help the parties during the “coming crucial period for the people of Sudan.”
The formation of the new Government comes two months after the holding of historic presidential and parliamentary elections, the first of their kind in Sudan in 24 years.
On Monday, the top UN envoy to Sudan told the Security Council that the international community must take a more active role in promoting democracy after the elections, particularly ahead of next year's referenda, and also focus on stabilizing the increasingly violent Darfur region.
“Sudan needs to be encouraged and assisted to expand the democratic space opened by the recent elections and establish a broad-based system of national governance that leads to a more equitable society and durable peace,” Haile Menkerios, head of UNMIS, told the 15-member UN body.
In late April, the Council extended the mandate of UNMIS for another year, stressing the need to wrap up all remaining tasks under the CPA.
Accra / Ghana/ Africa / Modernghana.com