OneWorld.net (U.S.)

The United Nations has announced the deployment in Sudan of a peace mission of at least 7,000 peacekeepers in February 2005. The UN special representative for Sudan, Jan Pronk, explained that the details of the mission have already been defined: the peacekeeping contingent will be ready for deployment as soon as the government of Khartoum and separatist rebels of South Sudan sign a final peace accord. Last Friday, before the UN Security Council, convened in an extraordinary assembly in Nairobi (Kenya), the sides committed to sign a final accord by December 31 to end 21 years of war. On the same day, the 15 also unanimously adopted a resolution, in which they exhorted the government and rebels to respect previous commitments, threatening sanctions in the contrary. Mr. Pronk stated that the UN peacekeepers will mainly be deployed in South Sudan, theatre to a conflict that claimed 2-million victims – mainly from famine and disease. On behalf of the government of Sudan, Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail yesterday welcomed the UN decision: “The resolution is a positive change of the Security Council toward the Sudan conflict”. Also John Garang, leader of the SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army), defined the UN decision to deploy a peace force as “good news”.