Witnessed by government officials, African Union and United
Nations representatives and hundreds of thousands of local people,
the Sudanese government and the Popular Force for Rights and
Democracy (PFRD), signed a peace agreement in Genaina, capital of
West Darfur, on Saturday.
"The peace agreement will relieve the suffering of our people,"
said Hisham Norain, leader of the PFRD, a recently established
rebel movement which has broken away from the National Redemption
Front (NRF), the biggest rebel group, which inked an agreement with
the government on Thursday.
"We have reached a positive agreement on the rights, freedom and
dignity of our people," Norain told reporters at a news conference
after the signing.
"In West Darfur, there are now no rebels and we live in peace,"
a local villager told China Daily in Arabic through a
translator.
His words were echoed by Ahmed Ibrahim, a spokesman for the
Sudan Liberation Army Movement, another rebel group and a signatory
to the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA), reached with the Sudanese
government in Nigerian capital Abuja in May 2006.
"People here want peace -- there is no hope for a positive
outcome if the war continues," said Ibrahim.
He added that he was expecting refugees to begin returning
following the signing of the peace agreement.
Saturday's peace treaty signing was also attended by a special
adviser of Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir, who said the
president had high hopes for the new deal.
Advisor Majzoub al-Khalifa also hit out at US sanctions of
Sudan. "The United States has sanctioned Sudan for more than 15
years. Despite the sanctions, our country has flourished with
annual growth of 7 to 8 percent," said al-Khalifa. "The real loser
is the United States itself. They (Americans) did not support
implementation of the DPA, although they should have.
Southern militia integrated
While the peace agreement was being signed in Genaina, in
southern Sudan politicians agreed to integrate the region's largest
militia into the autonomous southern army.
Analysts say the integration is vital for peace in the region,
where a bloody civil war was fought between southern rebels and the
northern-based government between 1983 and 2005.
Under a January 2005 peace deal, the former southern rebel Sudan
People's Liberation Army (SPLA) formed an autonomous government in
Juba, a north-south coalition government in Khartoum and agreed to
share oil wealth of around 500,000 barrels per day with the central
government.
(China Daily June 11, 2007)
