Rights for southerners key to national unity, says US envoy

The US envoy for Sudan, John Danforth, said on Wednesday that rights for southerners were the key to national unity. "The issue is what will happen in the next six years," he said. "Whether there will be a just peace, whether the rights of the people who are in the minority and the people in the south will be recognised and whether they will be full participants in the country," Reuters news agency quoted him saying in the Egyptian capital, Cairo. Following a meeting with Arab League Secretary-General Amr Musa, he told reporters that almost all parties to the 19-year conflict recognised that a united Sudan was desirable, Reuters reported. Meanwhile, the appointment of a Canadian special envoy for peace in Sudan was greeted with reservations in Khartoum. Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il had told journalists that the appointment of Senator Mobina Jafer "is still under consideration by the concerned authorities", AFP reported. Ottawa should have consulted Khartoum before taking this step, he added. "It is difficult to expect that Sudan would agree to such an appointment, by any country, without full consideration," AFP quoted him saying. In a separate development, the donor community, together with United Nations agencies, expressed concern on Wednesday over the serious humanitarian situation obtaining in parts of Sudan due to "continued military operations and lack of humanitarian access". In a statement, they called for "a dramatic gesture" which would allow "immediate free and unimpeded access" to populations in need. Peace talks between the two main warring parties, the Khartoum government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army, which opened in the southwestern Kenyan town of Machakos on Monday, are a follow-up to talks in July which resulted in the historic Machakos Protocol. The Protocol makes provision for a referendum for the population in southern Sudan - the scene of fierce fighting between Khartoum and the SPLM/A since 1983 - to be conducted in six years' time to choose whether to secede or remain in a united Sudan. Matters yet to be agreed on by the parties include the geographic definition of the south, power sharing, wealth sharing, and security arrangements. A statement issued this week by the advocacy group, International Crisis Group, also said that the signed protocol was ambiguous on the issue of the relationship between religion and state. "The issue will remain a live one until an agreement is reached on a constitution for the central government that is neutral on religion," it noted.