"Commitment to CPA at critical stage"

The Sudanese ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) must show commitment to the agreement that ended war in the South if peace is to hold across the vast country, a think-tank has warned.

"Both parties must recommit to full CPA [Comprehensive Peace Agreement] implementation ... and the international community must re-engage robustly in support of the still shaky peace deal and recognise that implementation would create the best environment for peace in Darfur and beyond," the International Crisis Group (ICG) stated on 13 March.

In a briefing paper, Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement: Beyond the Crisis, the ICG said that while there was progress on most issues, there were few guarantees the new timetables set in December would be implemented.

Several factors threatened the CPA, including the dominance in the NCP of those who view the deal and the elections as a threat to their control. "The NCP still wants a partnership but one that neutralises the SPLM as a national challenger and defines it as a purely Southern-based junior partner," it said.

The other factors were divisions and infighting within the SPLM and the "disengaged" roles of international guarantors and the UN due to preoccupation with the situation in the volatile western region of Darfur.

"Both parties calculate that a return to war is not in their best present interests, and they have more to gain working together," the ICG noted.

"But there is great distrust, and each side wants cooperation on its own terms. If peace is to hold, they must rededicate themselves to the CPA and broaden its national support."

The CPA, signed on 9 January 2005 in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, ended a 21-year civil war between North and South Sudan, which affected millions of people and devastated Southern states.

On 19 February, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sudan, told the Security Council that while the implementation of the CPA had remained on track, it could still be undermined by lingering mistrust between the two sides.

He cited the oil-rich Abyei region, which lies on the border between the South and North, as a potential flashpoint from which conflict could resume.

eo/mw