AU insists Darfur peace agreement must be implemented

COPENHAGEN – The head of the African Union’s executive said on Wednesday it was vital for the peace accord to end the civil war in the Sudanese region of Darfur to be implemented as soon as possible.

“We (the international community) must now act together to ensure the commitments that were made are honoured. We can no longer allow people who want war to impose their will,” the head of the AU Commission, former Malian president Alpha Oumar Konare, told reporters in Denmark.The AU-brokered peace deal was signed on May 5 by the Sudanese government and the largest Darfur rebel faction to end a three-year war that has killed up to 300 000 people and forced 2,4 million to flee their homes.It provides for a more equitable distribution of wealth and power, the disarming of the pro-government Janjaweed militias, a referendum on the future of Darfur and the integration of some rebels into the Sudanese army.But on Tuesday the top advisor to the rebels who signed the deal urged the United Nations to freeze its implementation, saying they had been pressured into signed an “incomplete agreement” that would probably not solve the crisis.Konare responded on Wednesday by saying the peace accord, reached after two years of arduous negotiations in Nigeria, was a “good compromise” and could not now be changed.”The negotiations in Ajuba have finished,” he said, after a meeting on Darfur with Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.”We have to move on,” he added.”We have to be clear – there isn’t a military solution to the conflict.The (rebel) movements can’t win the war and neither can the Sudanese government.””The only future for Sudan is a Sudan that is democratic, united, pluralist and diverse…We should work together to achieve this.”On Tuesday British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said the Abuja accord was “only the start of rebuilding Darfur”.She said the cash-strapped AU peacekeeping force needed enlarging – which would require a donors’ pledging conference soon – and should quickly be transformed into a United Nations force “with detailed planning proposals from the UN”.- Nampa-AFPWe can no longer allow people who want war to impose their will,” the head of the AU Commission, former Malian president Alpha Oumar Konare, told reporters in Denmark.The AU-brokered peace deal was signed on May 5 by the Sudanese government and the largest Darfur rebel faction to end a three-year war that has killed up to 300 000 people and forced 2,4 million to flee their homes.It provides for a more equitable distribution of wealth and power, the disarming of the pro-government Janjaweed militias, a referendum on the future of Darfur and the integration of some rebels into the Sudanese army.But on Tuesday the top advisor to the rebels who signed the deal urged the United Nations to freeze its implementation, saying they had been pressured into signed an “incomplete agreement” that would probably not solve the crisis.Konare responded on Wednesday by saying the peace accord, reached after two years of arduous negotiations in Nigeria, was a “good compromise” and could not now be changed.”The negotiations in Ajuba have finished,” he said, after a meeting on Darfur with Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.”We have to move on,” he added.”We have to be clear – there isn’t a military solution to the conflict.The (rebel) movements can’t win the war and neither can the Sudanese government.””The only future for Sudan is a Sudan that is democratic, united, pluralist and diverse…We should work together to achieve this.”On Tuesday British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said the Abuja accord was “only the start of rebuilding Darfur”.She said the cash-strapped AU peacekeeping force needed enlarging – which would require a donors’ pledging conference soon – and should quickly be transformed into a United Nations force “with detailed planning proposals from the UN”. – Nampa-AFP