News Article by KNA posted on June 19, 2001 at 15:45:45: EST (-5 GMT)
Factions accused of derailing Sudan peace efforts
By Kenya News Agency
Nairobi, June 19, 2001 (KNA) -- The struggle for power and divided
interests among
local liberation movements in Southern Sudan region are the
main obstacles to unity
and peace.
This was said by New Sudan Council of Churches, (NSCC ) peace facilitator Mr.
Telar Deng during the opening of a six-day conference on peace in Southern
Sudan
that kicked off at Kisumu National Museum on Tuesday.
Mr Dang told the conference that differences among movements like the Sudan
Peoples Liberation Movement, Southern Sudan People's Movement and Sudan
People's Defence Force was a blow to the peace process and unity among the
Southern Sudanese.
The conference is attended by Chiefs, Church leaders, women and youth leaders
from
Southern Sudan.
Mr. Deng said the NSCC was mobilizing groups at the grass root levels like
Chiefs,
Church leaders and the youth to act as pressure points to activate
struggle for freedom
in the South.
The participants at the conference noted that there was need for a united
Sudan saying
such unity will help them in convincing the world of the
problems in the region so as
to lobby for assistance.
The meeting which is aimed at finding solution to ethnic and political
divisions that
has rocked Southern Sudan is being sponsored by the (NSCC).
Eighteen years of war between the Islamic government and the mainly Christian
south
has led to the death of thousands of civilians while millions of
others have been
displaced.