From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Wed May 27 2009 - 05:08:52 EDT
South Sudan warns peace deal under threat
27/05/2009
JUBA, Sudan (AFP) - Southern Sudanese president Salva Kiir warned on Tuesday
that the 2005 peace deal that ended Sudan's 22-year civil war was "seriously
threatened" by growing levels of violence.
Kiir, who is also first vice president of Sudan, said the north-south
Comprehensive Peace Agreement was being put at risk by recent conflict.
"The CPA, that we concluded as a result of our enormous sacrifices, is
seriously threatened by enemies of peace from within our realm and without,"
Kiir told a rally in the capital of the semi-autonomous south.
Several rival ethnic groups have clashed in the south in recent months,
leaving more than 1,000 dead and many thousands more displaced.
Cattle rustling and tribal clashes occur regularly in the south, but the
ferocity of recent attacks has shocked many.
Kiir, who said the violence was an "abnormal pattern of insecurity,"
suggested that the fighting was being caused deliberately to destabilise the
south. He blamed unnamed outside and internal forces.
It is a tense time for Sudan, with national elections due in February and a
referendum on independence for the south scheduled for 2011.
"This is a well designed strategy to discredit you as people who cannot
govern themselves, particularly as we approach general elections and
referendum," he told crowds.
Kiir was speaking at a rally in the southern capital Juba to mark the 26th
anniversary of a revolt by southern troops in the Sudanese army, who formed
the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA).
He made his speech to large crowds gathered at the mausoleum of the first
southern president John Garang, who signed the peace deal in 2005.
Soldiers from the SPLA, now the official army of the south, marched past
Kiir and other top southern officials, in a parade that included three tanks
and heavy artillery pieces.
The parade was seen by some as a show of force to the south's former
northern enemies, now partners in a unity government.
Copyright C 2009 AFP.
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