Al-Mahdi calls on Darfur rebels to adopt "civil jihad" to press Khartoum into convening all-inclusive conference - Unused water and Roseires Dam

Sadiq al-Mahdi is the last elected prime minister of Sudan. He led a coalition government until he was toppled in a coup in 1989. The man who overthrew him was military officer Omar al-Bashir, who is now Sudans president.

The below copied report quotes Sadiq Al-Mahdi as saying elevation of Roseires Dam would be the most viable project in Sudan as it would avail it of 4bn cubic metres of unused water. Unused water? How interesting. Horrendous fighting goes on in the Sudan over the shortage of water for drinking, farming and livestock. As noted here at Sudan Watch many times before, water is key to the future development of the Sudan. Excerpt from Small-hydro Atlas:

Sudan needs to implement new hydro projects to overcome energy shortages and to reduce dependence on imported oil. Integrated Nile Basin development would allow for better use of the water resources of the Nile, increasing, electricity production. An interconnected power grid, involving hydro plants in the Upper Nile basin and the Egyptian grid could solve problems of instability and insufficient capacity supplied to the country.

June 3, 2006 KHM report (Khartoum) Sudan Tribune. Copy:

Former Prime Minister and leader of the opposition Umma Party, Sadiq al-Mahdi, told over a million of his supporters at the town of Sinja, Blue Nile State that everyone should work to rid the Sudan of its problems.

He called on Darfur rebels to adopt what he termed "civil jihad" in order to press Sudanese government into convening an all-inclusive conference to realize just peace and install a national government to conduct fair elections.

Al-Mahdi welcomed all peace agreements but said that the way these agreements were signed would create dissension and discord as they were not built on national base.

States should be given their shares in power and wealth and boundaries of the states should be demarcated in accordance with their existing boundaries in 1956, Al-Mahdi added.

He lashed out at the government's policy of lifting health subsides, its exploitation of power for partisan purposes and its agricultural and industrial policy which has led to unprecedented deterioration in agriculture and industry.

Al-Mahdi compared Sudan to Nigeria, "the government is replicating Nigeria's experience where people were deprived of the fruits of oil."

Elevation of Roseires Dam would be the most viable project in Sudan as it would avail it of 4bn cubic metres of unused water, he added.

Further reading

Jun 1 2005 DPA - Sudanese opposition leader to boycott interim government.

Apr 25 2005 Sudan Tribune - Sudan's last democratically elected prime minister called for a South African model: Sadiq Al-Mahdi is an Oxford educated economist and, at 31, was the youngest Prime Minister of Sudan and the last to be democratically elected. He says Sudan is at the stage that South Africa was when the former president FW de Klerk freed Nelson Mandela.

May 7 2006 Sudan Tribune - Sudanese opposition describes Darfur deal as flawed : Umma Party Secretary General Al-Sadiq al-Mahdi said the Abuja deal "hinges on temptations" after failure of reaching agreement with the armed groups in Abuja noting that this deal should be discussed on a Darfur-to-Darfur negotiation table.

Sudan's Dinka back home after 20-year journey - 90,000 displaced southerners in Darfur, 25,000 have returned

June 3, 2006 UK Independent report by Tristan McConnell in Kiir Adem, South Darfur:

Joseph Dut is going home after years on the move. He fled his home in southern Sudan in 1983; now the cycle of violence is returning him once again.

He is one of thousands of southern Sudanese who escaped to the western province of Darfur during the 21-year civil war, only to flee south again now due to the fighting there.

The banks of the river Kiir have been home to thousands of southern Sudanese for the past few months as destitute and hungry people flee Darfur. They are predominantly Dinka people, traditionally cattle-herding Africans, but Sudan's wars robbed them of their cows long ago.

The Kiir's 100-yard-wide stream of swampy chest-deep water marks the difference between safety and danger in this disputed border area between north and south Sudan.

The trading centre of Kiir Adem is little more than a strip of dirt with a ramshackle collection of wooden frames and grass roofs. Here, Mr Dut sits on a small pile of his belongings. "When the Arab militias came to the town we were in, shooting, we ran," recalls Mr Dut. "They took everything, so we left."

In a continent of sometimes ungovernably large countries, Sudan is the largest. It has been torn apart by civil wars since independence from Britain in 1956. While the fighting in Darfur continued, the war between Khartoum and the south ended in January 2005, after 21 years and two million deaths.

People such as Mr Dut were pushed from pillar to post. For many, it is the first time they have returned in more than two decades.

"After leaving the south we lived for some time as refugees in Libya, and then we moved back to Sudan, to Darfur," says Mr Dut. In Darfur he - with his wife and five children - worked as a farmer on the arid land and slowly rebuilt their lives. Then the Janjaweed militia came earlier this year, shooting AK-47s, burning houses and looting. Again, Mr Dut was on the run.

Mr Dut is one of 11,000 southern Sudanese who have travelled from the state of South Darfur through Kiir Adem into the neighbouring state of Northern Bar el-Ghazal in the past three months, fleeing attacks by the Janjaweed militias blamed for the ethnic cleansing in Darfur.

The conflict in Darfur threatens an already shaky peace agreement in the south, monitored by a 10,000-strong UN force.

Next week, a UN Security Council delegation will visit southern Sudan, Khartoum and Darfur to assess the country's continuing troubles.

Nick Horne, a UN official in Aweil town in Northern Bar el-Ghazal, estimates that of the 90,000 displaced southerners in Darfur, 25,000 have so far returned. "Some of those returning now left because of the fighting, some because of the famine in 1987," he said.

This week, the migration of displaced people will all but stop as the rainy season begins in earnest. But for Mr Dut and his family, more than 20 years of fleeing conflict are at last over. Once again he will be starting to rebuild his life, but this time he is at home. "Home is always home. Even though there's nothing here, I am happy," he says.
- - -

June 4 2006 Scotland on Sunday - Sudan refugees seek home in Israel.

SLA's Abdel Wahed Mohamed al-Nur rejects the whole Darfur Peace Agreement, wants UN mediation

This is what the Darfur rebels have wanted all along, for UN mediators to replace AU mediators and for the UN to take over the AU Mission in Darfur. The following report by Reuters points out what has been said by the UN all along, that the demand for UN mediated talks is unlikely to be met as the UN has supported the AU and the accord it brokered. Excerpt:

"The African Union mediation team has failed to realise peace in Darfur," said Nouri Abdalla, an adviser to Nur.

"The whole Darfur file, with regard to resolving the conflict in Darfur, we are asking the United Nations to take over the file," he told Reuters in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

The demand is unlikely to be met as the United Nations has supported the AU and the accord it brokered.

"The SLA has decided that any extension to the deadline to sign the proposed DPA (Darfur Peace Agreement) is a waste of time and unacceptable," Abdalla said.

"We asked for supplementary documents to be attached to the proposed DPA, and if that happened, our key fundamental demand, we were going to sign it," Abdalla said.

"What we are saying right now is that we are rejecting the whole agreement altogether."

He said the AU had failed because it was selective in applying pressure on the rebels to sign the peace Darfur deal.

- - -

June 3 2006 Aljazeera/Agencies report - Darfur rebel faction rejects AU role: "The AU has absolutely and miserably failed in its efforts to mediate the fighting in Darfur," said Nouri Abdalla, an adviser to al-Nur. "It is time it hands over the whole Darfur mediation file to the United Nations."

NATO Update: UN's Jan Egeland visits NATO

NATO Update May 30, 2006 confirms UN aid chief Jan Egeland, discussed Darfur and the role of the military in disaster relief during a visit to NATO on 30 May:

Mr Egeland met NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer to discuss NATO's continuing support for the African Union's peacekeeping mission in Darfur.

NATO recently agreed to extend its assistance to the African Union until September this year. This Alliance is helping to airlift African Union peacekeepers in and out of Darfur and training its forces.



They also discussed likely NATO support for a possible UN-led peacekeeping mission in Darfur, after the mandate of the current African Union force ends in September.

[via News Blaze]

UN-AU mission leaves for Darfur in next few days

UN News Centre report June 2, 2006 - excerpt:

A joint United Nations-African Union team will head early next week to Darfur to assess the needs of the AU's peacekeeping mission there as well as the possible transition to a UN force, a senior United Nations official said today.

"This mission will be leaving in the next few days and will assemble in Addis in the first part of next week, it will then travel on to Khartoum as a joint team from UN-AU team," Hedi Annabi, the Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping, told reporters after briefing the Security Council.

The mission will conduct consultations with the Sudanese Government before going to Darfur "to meet with the local authorities, establish contact with them, look into the requirements of AMIS (the AU Mission in Sudan) to enable that force to perform the additional tasks foreseen for AMIS under the Darfur Peace Agreement," he said.

"The mission will also conduct an assessment of the requirements of the transition to a UN peace operation" should such an operation be established, he added.

While the Government has agreed to the deployment of an assessment team to Darfur, it has not yet agreed to a transition to a UN operation. "I think that is it is understood that we are conducting the assessment mission without prejudice to the decisions that will need to be taken by the various actors involved - the Government of Sudan, the AU and the UN Security Council," Mr Annabi said.

"We have tried to make it clear to them that for us, the main purpose of that force would be to assist in the implementation of the provisions of the Darfur agreement," he noted. "In other words, a peacekeeping operation whose sole purpose would be to assist the parties who have concluded the agreement to bring back peace to that long-suffering region of Sudan."

Sudan to Establish Joint Integrated Forces With Ex-Rebels

The following copy of a news report features on the website of the Embassy of Sudan, Washington, D.C., USA.

NEWS STORY Monday, May 22, 2006

Text of report in English by Sudanese newspaper Khartoum Monitor website on 22 May

Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) chief of staff and deputy chairman of the Joint Defence Board (JDB), who is also the chairman of the current session of the JDB, General Oyay Deng Ajak, chaired the JDB's third meeting yesterday at the Armed Forces Officers Club in Khartoum.

The spokesperson for the JDB, Maj-Gen Majdhub Rahama, in a statement to Khartoum Monitor disclosed arrangements for preparing a 15,000 joint integrated forces shared equally by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the SPLA in order to function as an international force if required.

Rahama denied a dispute between the two parties saying there were only minor outstanding points which would be settled later. He explained that all matters related to the implementation of military provisions of the CPA (Comprehensive Peace Agreement) had been thoroughly discussed, adding that a committee has been formed for the redeployment of forces and the resolution of all their problem.

"The most important issue discussed in the meeting has been the building of trust among combatants," Rahama stated, confirming that implementation would be preceded by an integrated survey. The JDB meeting is scheduled to end tomorrow.

Source: Khartoum Monitor website, Khartoum, in English 22 May 06

Darfuris say peace deal incomplete - 'We stay for 100 years in camps'

Deutsche Presse-Agentur report June 2, 2006 El Fasher, Sudan.

Senior members and field commanders of JEM and Nur's SLM/A faction ask to sign Darfur Peace Agreement

June 2, 2006 IRIN report - just in:

Senior members of the two rebel groups that earlier refused to accept a peace deal aimed at ending hostilities in the troubled western Sudanese region of Darfur have now expressed interest in signing the agreement.

Around 40 delegates from Abdelwahid Mohamed al-Nur's faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) - including field commanders and political officers - are in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, to request the African Union (AU) to allow them to sign the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA), which their leaders failed to sign before the 31 May deadline.

Representatives of both rebel groups told journalists on Friday that they had decided to sign the peace agreement in order to end the crisis in Darfur.

"We have suffered a lot from the crisis. We came here to express our support for the peace agreement. We are not against our leaders' reasons not to sign the peace agreement, but we urge them to join the peace agreement," said JEM field commander Abdela Abdela Bakt.

While awaiting further instructions from the AU regarding the modalities that would allow them to sign the DPA, the two factions asked the pan-African body to give their leaders additional time to sign the agreement.

"We would like to ask the AU to give additional days for our leaders to put their signature. If they fail to do so again, we will sign the peace agreement," said Mohammed Adam Basi, political advisor to the SLM/A. "On our part, we are ready to sign it any time, as soon as the AU finalises the mechanisms."

AU says dissident rebels behind deterioration of security in Darfur - Faction of JEM ready to sign peace deal

Chair of AU Commission, Alpha Konare, blamed the two holdout groups of being behind what he described as the "progressive deterioration of the security situation in Darfur."

A dissident faction of the JEM merged in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Thursday, saying it accepted the peace agreement.

"We already discussed all of the decisions with the African Union and now we are ready to sign the Darfur peace agreement," said Col. Abdul Majid Hassan, who said he leads the movement's faction is South Darfur. It was not immediately clear how much support Hassan's faction enjoys. - AP report June 1 via ST June 2, 2006.

Darfur's JEM rebel leader says "We're going to have our own country"

Darfur rebel group JEM says independence is a valid alternative, Sudan Tribune reported June 2, 2006. Excerpt:

The head of one of the three rebel groups in Darfur has mentioned the possibility of his group seeking independence for the western Sudanese region after it failed to sign up to the recent peace deal, TV Slovenija reported.

Khalil Ibrahim, who took part in talks with Slovenian President Janez Drnovsek on Wednesday, told the Slovenian public broadcaster that his Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) would seek independence if there was no peace in Darfur.

"Now as the next step that means that we will ask for self-determination - we're going to have our own country," Khalil told TV Slovenija, which said that this is the first time he has mentioned the possibility of independence.

Moreover, Khalil believes it does not make sense to extend the deadline for JEM to sing on to the peace agreement since the mediators from the African Union and International partners refuse to accept JEM's demand that the people of Darfur be compensated for the damage caused during the civil war.

"The most important point is not to make extension but to make substantive changes and commitments," he said.

Moreover, he claimed that his movement was put under enormous pressure during the peace talks in Abuja. "You sign or we will kill you, this is what they told us," he said.

Photo: Khalil Ibrahim (Sudan Tribune)

Note April 1, 2006 report Sudanese rebel group JEM dismisses peace talks and calls for Darfur's sovereignty - excerpt:

The chair of Darfur rebels group JEM, Khalil Mohammed, on Wednesday dismissed Darfur peace talks as "a waste of time, energy and resources of stakeholders." He said the peace talks would not achieve any meaningful result as they were "merely going in circles."

Mohammed said that if the African Union's April deadline for peace in the region lapsed without success, "the people of Darfur will be left with no choice other than to ask for self-determination".

"If we do not get our own sovereignty, the only alternative is a forceful change of the government in Khartoum," Chairman of Darfur rebel group JEM threatened.

UN World Food Programme feeds 6.1m people across Sudan

Between 1 to 28 May, United Nations World Food Programme dispatched a total amount of 40,167 tons of food from logistical hubs to the Darfur region in Sudan. - WFP Emergency Report No. 22 of 2006.

The Executive Director of the UN WFP, James Morris, arrives in Khartoum today to visit the agency's largest emergency operation, which was hit recently by a severe shortage of funds to feed some 6.1 million people across Sudan.

After meetings with government ministers in the capital on Saturday, Mr. Morris will fly to South Sudan, where WFP feeds hundreds of thousands of southern Sudanese returning home after 21 years of war.

The war displaced more than four million southern Sudanese inside the country and another 600,000 are scattered in refugee camps in neighbouring countries.

WFP's emergency operation in Sudan, with a budget of $746 million, was only half funded and contributions, especially cash, are needed to end ration cuts and cover requirements for the last quarter of 2006 and into 2007. - UN News Centre report June 2, 2006.

80,000 people now in Red Cross camp at Gereida, Darfur

While the Darfur insurgents bide their time, refusing to make peace, British Red Cross Society UK says an estimated 80,000 people are now living in the Red Cross camp at Gereida, Darfur - nearly a fourfold increase since 2004, Reuters June 1, 2006.

Britain urges SLM/A al-Nur to join Darfur peace deal

Official British source has urged the SLM/A faction led by Abdelwahid al-Nur which refused to sign the peace agreement in Darfur to sign the accord, Sudan Tribune reported June 2, 2006. Excerpt:

The spokesperson for the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Barry Marston told Al-Arabiya TV that Abdelwahid al-Nur is wrong if he believes that there is a better deal waiting for him. He has a golden opportunity to lead the population of Darfur towards this future. The international community will not be sympathetic if he does not seize this opportunity.

"This agreement guarantees the Darfur population a real representation in the Sudanese government and institutions. It guarantees them compensation and aid from the central government. It guarantees them the disarmament of the militias and of the Janjawid and it guarantees them other things. We believe that the time has come for all parties to join ranks in order to help the people of Darfur who suffered enormously in recent years" he further said.

Marston said that Britain is the second biggest donor state as far as Sudan is concerned. For instance, in the last three years we donated more than 100m pounds as a humanitarian aid to this region.

Libya's Gaddafi warns of NATO intervention if Chad and Sudan don't return to normal

Libyan leader Col Gaddafi on Thursday urged Sudan and Chad to settle their differences in the name of African unity as he opened a summit of African leaders in Tripoli, SudanTribune reported June 1, 2006. Excerpt:

"The conflict between Sudan and Chad serves only the enemies of Africa," Gadhafi said at the opening of the two-day summit of Community of Sahel-Saharan states (CEN-SAD).

"Relations between Chad and Sudan must return to normal," Gadhafi said.

If the conflict between the two countries continues, "that would open the way for intervention by troops of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation," he said.

"We must send observers to Darfur and the Sudan-Chad frontier," Gadhafi added.

Chad's Foreign Minister Ahmat Allami on Wednesday urged fellow African states to exert pressure on Sudan over its alleged support for Chadian rebels.

The Sudanese minister of state for foreign affairs, Al-Sammani al-Wassila, denied the charges of Sudanese interference in Chad, saying Khartoum was "ready to resolve this dispute"

Sudan's president pardons women home brewers

Sudanese President al-Bashir has decreed all women imprisoned for brewing illegal alcohol should be released, ending a vicious cycle affecting southern widows trying to feed their families in Khartoum. - Sapa-AFP/Mercury May 31, 2006.

Note, the report points out selling alcohol is the Sudan is illegal under Islamic sharia law. The president's decision was a show of good faith between the former north-south foes.

With Darfur rebels still not in peace pact, Annan to consult African leaders on next steps

Voicing concern that two factions in Darfur missed a deadline to sign a peace accord already endorsed by the largest rebel group, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan today said he would consult with African Union (AU) leaders on possible follow-up measures, UN News Centre reported June 1, 2006:

The Secretary-General strongly believes that the only way forward in addressing this devastating conflict is through the implementation of the Darfur Peace Agreement, as well as the decisions of the African Union Peace and Security Council.

Assistant Secretary-General Hedi Annabi will brief the Security Council tomorrow on the mission he undertook last month with Mr Annan's Special Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi for talks with Sudanese Government leaders talks on strengthening the current AU mission in Darfur (AMIS) and its possible transition to a UN peacekeeping force.

Sudan asks for more African troops in Darfur-Libya

Having followed news of Col Gaddafi's efforts to broker peace for Darfur, and logged reports here at Sudan Watch, this news just in from Reuters sounds most interesting:

Sudan asked on Thursday for more African troops to join the 7,000-strong African Union force monitoring a truce in the troubled region, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said.

"Sudan demanded forces from the Community of Sahel-Saharan States be dispatched to Darfur," Gaddafi told a meeting of the group in Tripoli.

"We discussed that demand raised by Sudan and we agreed upon that demand," Gaddafi added in his speech to leaders of the Community.

He did not say whether Khartoum had asked for a specific number of troops and did not give any details about what force the group might provide and when it might go to Darfur.

Gaddafi becomes Community chairman after the one-day gathering of heads of state of the group, which includes Sudan, Chad, Egypt, Mali, Niger, Ghana, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Benin, Burkina Faso, Morocco and Tunisia.

Gaddafi, whose remarks were broadcast live on state TV, vowed to work to "extinguish fires" in Sudan, Ivory Coast and other trouble spots on the continent.

"Those who are creating troubles and problems in Africa must be treated like criminals because such problems divert attention and efforts from focusing on economic and social development in Africa," he said.

Gaddafi told African leaders to "count on Libya's resources and potential" to further cooperation and resolve conflicts and tensions across the continent.

Further reading

May 29 2006 Sudan proposes Libyan role in Darfur peace implementation

May 28 2006 Libyan leader Gaddafi to supervise Darfur Peace Agreement - this link leads to:

May 27 2006 Libyan leader receives AU Commission Chairman Konare

May 28 2006 Sudanese envoy al-Khalifa to meet in Libya with Col Gaddafi and SLM/A's Minnawi re Darfur peace process

"Save Darfur" movement comes across as a faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army

Don't you wonder who funds and supplies the rebels in Darfur? I do. If you know, could you please share here. There are some clues within UN reports archived at this blog but it's all rather vague. For all the miles of news published on Darfur, I've yet to find anything that tells us about the Darfur rebel leaders and how they make a living and afford armies for three years.

Having tracked the news on Darfur pretty closely, on a daily basis for more than two years, I've noticed how at critical pressure points of peace negotiations - like now for instance, when Darfur peace talks are at their most sensitive - there appears to be slick, efficient, well organised campaigners in America that have a knack of issuing timely emails and press releases calling for military intervention (an act of war) by international/UN troops (what the rebels have wanted all along) whenever the rebels need to hear it most.

Here is an example of something issued today:

Elie Wiesel Foundation For Humanity's press release June 1, 2006 at Save Darfur.org - also circulated by Reuters:

62 Nobel Laureates Urge President Bush, Other World Leaders to push for UN peacekeeping force to implement Darfur Peace Accord. Also Urge Bush to appoint "Presidential Envoy for Peace in Sudan."

This concerted effort by what seems now like an army of American civilians must be affecting US foreign policy and drowning out the voices of those who are against military intervention but in favour of supporting the fledgling African Union and "African solutions to African problems".

The spinning of Darfur reminds me a little of the pumping-up of emotion in the run up to the US invasion of Iraq. As we all saw on TV, the American people and their troops were shocked to find they were not feted by the local - troops were not welcomed with open arms or strewn with flowers as they entered Iraq to liberate the people from their despicable tyrant.

SUDANESE SAY NO TO THREAT OF INTERVENTION



Photo: Aug 5, 2005 China Daily report: Sudanese say no to threat of intervention - Over 100,000 Sudanese protesters march to the HQ of the United Nations in Khartoum Wednesday, Aug 4, 2004 to protest at the possibility of Western military intervention to combat a humanitarian crisis in the western region of Darfur.

The following extracts and photos are from a blog entry March 5, 2006 by Jan Pronk, UN SGSR in the Sudan:

In February I had had difficult encounters with tribal and traditional leaders in Nyala and El Fashr. Most of them were strongly against a UN force in Darfur. They accuse the United Nations of being manipulated by the United States. They fear that Western countries and NATO want to re-colonize and occupy Sudan. They speak about a conspiracy against Islam and against Arab nations. They referred to Irak and Afghanistan. They threatened with a war to defend their territory.


Photo: No No For New Occupation (Jan Pronk Weblog/Paula Souverijn-Eisenberg copyright)

Banners against a potential UN peacekeeping force in Darfur at a public rally in Sheria, South Darfur, 25 February 2006.


Photo: Shearia Warns Pronk To Play With Fire (Jan Pronk Weblog/Paula Souverijn-Eisenberg copyright)

Vicious verbal attacks against the UN and Kofi Annan have not been answered by the authorities. This has added to a climate within which threats have become quite nasty: “we warn the ambassadors of the US and the UK and the Special Representative of the UN that they might be shot”, and “we are waiting for you, but please come with enough coffins”.


Photo: Demonstration in Nyala against a potential AMIS-UN transition (Jan Pronk Weblog/ Paula Souverijn-Eisenberg copyright)

I also try to make clear that the UN is exactly the opposite of what they are afraid for. Peace-keeping by the UN is a guarantee that the sovereignty of a nation is respected, that the protection of the people is the sole objective, that there is no second agenda or, at least, that the second agenda of other nations can be neutralized.

In Sheria and Gereida my thoughts went back to Srebrenica, 1995. Will we make the same mistakes, or other, with similar consequences?

Southern Sudan ex-rebels desperately need training-UN

James Ellery, southern region coordinator for the UN Mission in Sudan, said the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) guerrillas must be turned into an apolitical group that could fulfil their role in last year's peace agreement, Reuters Daniel Wallis reported June 1, 2006. Excerpt:

"This is crucial work that is yet to be done," Ellery told Reuters on Thursday at his headquarters in the southern capital Juba.

"The SPLA is not the right sort of army for peacetime, never mind a federal, or perhaps eventually a sovereign, setting."

But Ellery said he did not share criticism of the government of south Sudan, which is 80 percent controlled by the SPLA, most of whose leaders spent two decades in the bush.

"The task they face is gargantuan," he said. "This area has been astonishingly neglected and systematically excluded from development for 50 years."

Southern Sudan is one of the poorest places on earth, with vast mined areas, few tarmac roads and little infrastructure.

Analysts say the north has the capacity to implement the peace agreement, but has shown little political will, while the SPLA is committed, but is weak and disorganised.

Under the [Comprehensive Peace Agreement] deal, most of the northern troops in the south are to be withdrawn. Ellery said that was well under way.

"Most mornings you see them leaving from the airport," he said. "Khartoum has now pulled out 56 percent, and everybody accepts that figure, so they are well ahead of the 50 percent of troops they committed to withdraw before the start of July."

He said the peace agreement was "broadly on track". There remained significant differences between both sides over the future of disputed areas, he said, and disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of combatants had not started.

He said the most problematic area included Upper Nile state, where nearly 50 people were killed in April in clashes between two factions of the South Sudan Defence Forces (SSDF), which fought with Khartoum against the SPLA during the war.

One SSDF faction joined SPLA forces and the other joined the government army after the peace deal stipulated that armed groups had to join the army or the former rebels. Ellery said the area had been calm since.

"Things became unravelled there briefly, but now we can say that disarmament in the most difficult part of the country is going well, at the moment," Ellery said.

Talks continue to convince Darfur rebels to sign peace deal

June 1 2006 AP report via Sudan Tribune - excerpt:

"The African Union continues its intensive talks with the factions to convince them to sign, even after the deadline has passed," Khartoum-based AU spokesman Moussa Hamani said.

He added, however, "the agreement itself is not negotiable."

Another AU spokesman in the Sudanese capital, Noureddine Mezni, said that First Vice President Salva Kiir Mayardit, chairman of the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement, is mediating to bring the factions together in Juba, in the country's south, for further talks in coming few days.

Further reading

May 31 2006 The Sudanese Thinker blog by Drima: Strategic Victimhood In Sudan (A MUST READ)

May 31 2006 The Daily Telegraph correspondents in Addis Ababa: Deadline for Darfur peace deal passes - AU drawing up new document to allow dissident factions and commanders to sign peace deal and escape sanctions

Jun 1 2006 Sudan Tribune: Despite Slovene efforts, Darfur JEM refuses to sign peace

Jun 1 2006 Sudan Tribune: Sudan's ex-rebel Kiir to meet SLM/A's Minnawi and Nur (and maybe JEM leader) within 72 hours - SPLM