Khartoum set to sign agreement to end attacks on civilians

The Sudanese government said on Monday that it had accepted an amended proposal from the United States aimed at stopping the targeting of civilians in the country's 19-year civil war.

"The new version is addressing the whole issue of protecting civilians instead of focusing only on aerial bombardment," said Ghazi Salah al-Din al-Atabani, the Sudanese presidential peace adviser, in a statement.

The scope of the US proposal has been widened beyond the issue of bombing attacks to include shelling, the taking of civilians as human shields and the use of civilian installations for military purposes, according to Atabani's statement, released by the Sudanese embassy in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

"The [new] proposal is therefore more balanced and inclusive," the statement added.

While humanitarian agencies, media groups and southern rebels have frequently reported government bombing attacks on civilians, Khartoum says that rebel groups - the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), in particular - are guilty of launching artillery attacks against civilian targets.

Robert Oakley, a former US ambassador and adviser to the US peace envoy to Sudan, John Danforth, said an agreement on protection of civilians had been reached with the Sudanese government, but that the papers had not yet been signed, United Press International (UPI) reported on Monday.

The agreement, if signed, would include "an international verification mechanism to deal with reports of attacks on civilians in contravention of the Geneva Convention", UPI quoted Oakley as saying.

The US proposal on ending attacks on civilians - one of four confidence-building measures suggested by Danforth in November - highlighted the problem of bombing attacks on civilian targets, but the envoy himself has said that the proposed verification mechanisms will not be limited to bombing.

Danforth called, in a press conference in Nairobi on 17 November, for the "cessation of bombing, artillery attacks and so on - helicopter gunship attacks - on innocent people, on civilians".

He stated in an article in the St Louis Post newspaper (in the US) in February that he had managed to reach formal agreement with Khartoum on: a cessation of hostilities and humanitarian access in the Nuba Mountains; zones and times of tranquillity to allow large-scale immunisations against polio, Guinea worm and rinderpest; and an undertaking to end the taking of slaves.

However, he said, he had not been able to reach formal agreement with Khartoum on measures to prevent attacks on civilians.

Following a Sudanese government helicopter gunship attack on a relief centre in the village of Bieh, western Upper Nile, on 20 February, the US said it was suspending peace discussions with Khartoum until it offered an explanation for the incident.

Khartoum later expressed its regrets, saying the attack was a mistake which occurred in the context of an escalation in military activity against oil extraction facilities by southern rebels.

Danforth is expected to submit a report to US President George W. Bush within the next few weeks on the feasibility of the US taking up an active role in efforts to bring an end to Sudan's civil war.

The reaction of the Sudanese government and the SPLM/A to the four US "tests of good faith" would represent a key part of that report, giving a clear indication of the seriousness of their intent to work for peace, Danforth said in November.
[see http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=15561]

"If they don't want peace, they will tell us by inaction, or by sabotage of these ideas, or by saying one thing and doing another - which is as bad," he added.