Sudanese vice president Ali Osman Mohammed Taha, left, and John Garang, chairman of the Sudanese People's Liberation Army share a joke before they signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, Sunday, Jan 9, 2005 at Nyayo stadium in Nairobi, Kenya. Sudan's vice president and the country's main rebel leader signed a comprehensive peace agreement to end Africa's longest-running conflict Sunday, concluding an eight-year process to stop a civil war that has cost more than 2 million lives since 1983. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)
NAIROBI, Jan 9 (AFP) - Sudan's Vice President Ali Osman Taha and the country's main rebel leader John Garang signed a peace accord here Sunday ending Africa's longest-running conflict.
Taha and Garang inked the deal ending 21 years of conflict at Kenya's Nyayo National Stadium with a host of African heads of state and other officials looking on.
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, whose country hosted mediation efforts, and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, chairman of the regional development organization that sponsored the talks, signed the agreement as witnesses.
Thousands of singing, dancing and ululating Sudanese, many of them refugees who live in Kenya, filled the stadium, proclaiming that the accord will bring "a new dawn" to the war-ravaged country.
"I congratulate delegates from the government of Sudan and the SPLA and all the Sudanese people for choosing peace," said former Kenyan general Lazaro Sumbeiywo, the chief mediator.
Yet Sumbeiywo, who applauded Taha and Garang for their "courageous decision- making and extraordinary leadership" cautioned that the deal must be carefully guarded if it is to be successful.
"The comprehensive agreement is a precious child to nurture with love and care," he said.
Sudanese President Omar el-Beshir, who put Taha in charge of the peace talks, Algerian President Abdulaziz Bouteflika, Rwandan President Paul Kagame, outgoing US Secretary of State Colin Powell and Arab League chief Amr Moussa also attended the ceremony.
The agreement, which puts an immediate ceasefire into place, is the culmination of lengthy negotiations that kicked off in earnest in Kenya in early 2002, after numerous false starts since Khartoum and the rebels adopted an agenda for such talks in 1994.
The war in the south erupted in 1983 when the rebels, led by Garang, rose up against Khartoum to end Arab and Muslim domination and marginalisation of the black, animist and Christian south.
While religion has fuelled the conflict, vast reserves of oil mostly in southern Sudan, has played an increasingly dominant role in the war that has claimed at least 1.5 million lives and left more than four million others homeless.
The cornerstone of the accord -- a package of eight protocols agreed since 2002 by the two parties -- is a protocol exempting the south from Sharia law and granting it six years of self rule after which it will vote in a referendum on whether to remain part of Sudan or secede.
Since then, Taha and Garang have agreed deals on transitional security, special arrangements that will be in force in three disputed areas, sharing of power and receipts accrued from oil revenue on a 50-50 basis.
Sunday's signing ushers in a six-month pre-interim period during which both sides will carry out preparations before the official six-year transitional period starts, when the south commences running its own affairs.
SPLM/A will be operating from the southern town of Rumbek, home to United Nations and other humanitarian agencies operating in the south, awaiting the government's withdrawal from the larger Juba town, also in the south.
The tears of suffering throughout these years of war in sudan have now changed into happiness in many sudanese people after signing of the peace deal.
But, Brothers and sisters let us not be outwitted or tricked again to our oppression by enemies like what in the year 1972 after this transitional period.
It is now also time for us to start informing our people and compagein effectively for self-determination as 'New sudan' or whatever name you give to it,because Six-year period is a very short duration and many of us will be caught by time undecided for the crucial election. Arabs with their sheria laws must remain as our friends but not people that we can share the same cup again.We do not need to be voted backed again into that mess or confused state.
Sons and daughters of this blessed land of cush cann,t you ruled ,educate and organised yourselves like other people ?.
Childern of Isreal demand for leader because they want to be like other nations, why cann,t we also demand our authority?.
Eventually, let us forgive all our sins and start reconstructing our country.
Thank God, at long last, the peace is signed. However, it is adviced the celeberations must be accompany by the ability to face the challanges ahead the implementations. We might wrongly think the bygone are the period of the challanges - however, the coming era is more difficult than the past. Implementation is harder than negotiations, but we may at least celeberate.
Thanks for forewarning us. There is seemingly a colosal misconception here about peace and perhaps tranquillity. It is a matter of shifting from one frying pan to another. Difficult days are ahead and therefore we ought not to make a huge mistake of underestimating them. This phase is the phase of "public awakening" and self-liberation in South Sudan politics. We have entered into the political, social, and economic war, where the most self-submissive people will remain in backwardness and permanent prostration for decades while those who believe in their putative myths that "they" were born to rule or lead or dominate or oppress continue pursuing their aspirations of dominating or ruling or leading or oppressing "those" [Aweil people] who were born and wrongly internalized the myths to be dominated or led or ruled or oppressed.
The question of faithfully alerting the public on their importance to getting the South uniformly moving in term of fair political representation, uniform social improvement, and fair economic development (equal distribution resources) for the most desperate and destitute people is the most prerequisite or panacea at this fresh time in re-construction time.
The another important thing to do at this time is to ask Khartoum government to find Aweil slaved/abducted kids's whereabouts. This is the responsibility of Aweil leadership and South Sudan leadership.
Your insightful perspective is correct. We have to be more cautious about obvious tricks or deceptive games of Arabs.
However, the best way to defeat "them" is to educate the public. The uneducated masses in South Sudan must be the central point this time of preparation. The policy of "public awakening" or simply the enlightenment of these people remains largely conspicuously significant. The vast majority of South Sudan (given this incredible rate of illiteracy) can't differentiate between equality, democracy, freedom, self-determination, liberty, and many more political terminologies. Their political awarenes or cognizance will help us a lot in the process of achieving a complete triumph or self-determination over the enemy of Gos.
My point is that to defeat your enemy you have to have most people who are capable to challenge the tactics or creativenes of your enemy. This is how we can succee from this moment on. Otherwise the excessive concern to be seen the wealthiest or the most super educated among the uneducated masses will not move us ahead inch in political development.
