Security Council Votes to Provide Aid After End to Sudan Civil War

After traveling halfway around the world to provide symbolic support to Sudan’s peace process, the U.N. Security Council on Friday adopted a resolution to provide political and economic help if Sudan ends its 21-year civil war this year.

With the United Nations Security Council’s 15 members acting as witnesses, leaders from the two warring sides signed an accord to complete peace talks by Dec. 31. Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha grasped the hand of rebel leader John Garang, and they raised their arms in victory. The men, who called each other “brother,” were expected to serve as co-vice presidents.

“We are keen, we are fully committed to give the people of Sudan and the people of Africa the gift of peace in the New Year,” Taha said.

More than 2 million people have died during the conflict between the Islamic national government in Khartoum and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, which is seeking a greater share of power and wealth for the largely Christian and animist south. Under the prospective agreement, the rebels will join the government and share in the country’s revenues. The rebel-held south will be allowed to vote on self-rule after 6 1/2 years.

The two sides have promised several times to finalize a peace accord. Civilians continue to die, mainly of hunger and disease, as the war has raged on.

John C. Danforth, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., acknowledged that skeptics had called the unusual Security Council trip a bit of grand stagecraft, with the envoys literally standing behind the two leaders, to support and to push.

“It is up to you to prove the naysayers and skeptics wrong, and to move your country forward toward joining the family of nations,” Danforth told the Sudanese leaders. To help them along, the council unanimously passed a resolution providing for a massive package of development aid and debt relief once the fighting stops and wealth and power-sharing agreements are in force.

The resolution also linked the end of Sudan’s civil war to the prospect of stabilizing a more recent conflict in the western region of Darfur. The region erupted in violence in February 2003, when the government joined forces with largely Sudanese Arab militias to put down a non-Arab rebel movement. The militias are accused of systematic attacks that have driven about 2 million people from their land and left an estimated 70,000 dead. U.N. investigators are trying to determine whether the killings amount to genocide.

Human rights groups have criticized the resolution because of its scant reference to sanctions in the event that Sudan fails to fulfill its promises to disarm and prosecute its paramilitary allies.

“We thought having the Security Council here might be a turning point for the people dying in Sudan,” said Brendan Cox of Oxfam International, a relief agency based in Britain. “But we can’t get aid to 200,000 people who are cut off by violence, while the Security Council is dithering, going for unanimity at the expense of action.”

Finding the right tone on Darfur was a subject of great debate among Security Council members. China, Russia, Algeria and Pakistan had been reluctant to highlight Darfur, for fear of diminishing Khartoum’s cooperation in the peace talks.

After intense negotiations that began in New York on Tuesday, and continued on the 17-hour flight aboard Air Force Two, the council decided Thursday to push for peace while keeping sight of Darfur.

Resolution 1574 calls for access for aid workers, an end to all violence and the repatriation of displaced people, a particular concern because about 1.6 million are living in tent cities in the western region. But it does not spell out the consequences if Khartoum does not comply.

“The violence and atrocities being perpetrated in Darfur must end now,” Danforth told Sudanese government leaders who attended the signing of the commitment to end the war. “You have heard this message clearly from the Security Council. Heed it. I cannot emphasize this point more strongly.”

During the council’s four-day trip to Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, the fourth time it has met outside New York since 1952 and its first in 14 years, its envoys also discussed peacekeeping in Somalia and working with the African Union for security in the region. The African Union has been taking a larger role in solving the continent’s conflicts, including sending 3,200 peacekeepers to Sudan.