UN mediation team calls for Sudan and rebel movement to cease fire by year end

UN mediation team calls for Sudan and rebel movement to cease fire by year end

2010-12-21 10:16:57 GMT+7 (ICT)

DARFUR, SUDAN (BNO NEWS) -- A mediation team involving the United Nations on Monday called on the Sudanese Government and the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) to achieve a ceasefire by the end of the year, before a scheduled referendum.

The mediation team consists of the United Nations, the African Union and Qatar and is in charge of advancing the Darfur peace process. On Sunday, the team announced that negotiations between the government and the rebel group had resumed in Doha, Qatar.

Qatar State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Bin Abdullah Al-Mahmoud, and the Joint Chief Mediator, Djibril Bassolé, urged both sides to reach an agreement on a cease of hostilities before December 31.

In addition, the two officials called on Abdul Wahid Nur, whose faction of the Sudanese Liberation Army has not been involved in the peace negotiations, to hold his announced consultations to determine its participation in the Doha peace talks by year's end.

The UN-backed team added that recent consultations in Darfur indicated that most stakeholders support the Doha peace process, desire to be closely involved in the final phase of the process, and their readiness to endorse the outcomes.

"All those consulted particularly stressed the importance of an inclusive process that would deliver a comprehensive and sustainable peace for Darfur. As such they underscored the necessity for all armed movements to participate without delay," the mediation team said in a statement.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has repeatedly urged all parties involved to enter into negotiations without delay as only a comprehensive and inclusive negotiated political settlement can achieve a credible ceasefire and address the causes of the Darfur armed conflict.

Approximately 300,000 people have been killed and another 2.7 million forced to flee their homes since violence erupted in Sudan in 2003. The armed conflict confronted rebels against Government forces and their allied Janjaweed militiamen.

On January 9, the people of Southern Sudan will vote on whether to secede from the rest of the country, as part of the final phase in the implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement which ended two decades of war between the northern-based Government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army in the south.

A separate referendum is scheduled to take place on the same day in which the residents of the central and oil-rich area of Abyei will vote on whether to be part of the north or the south.

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