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America.gov (Washington, DC)

Sudan: Envoy Gration Takes Peace Mission to Sudan, Ethiopia, Egypt

Merle David Kellerhals Jr.

18 August 2009

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Washington — U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan Scott Gration travels to Southern Sudan to help complete an agreement between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the National Congress Party (NCP), which is part of a broader 2005 peace agreement, the State Department announced.

Gration is traveling to Sudan, Ethiopia and Egypt August 17-24. His visit comes as the United States is nearing completion of a new policy on Sudan and the troubled Darfur region.

"I think we are getting close to the point where we will announce a new policy approach on Sudan," Assistant Secretary of State Philip Crowley said during the daily press briefing August 17. "I would expect that in the next couple of weeks. Also, I think you'll see the fruits of General Gration's labor emerge here very shortly."

Gration will travel to Juba, Southern Sudan, to complete an agreement on a bilateral action plan between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement and the National Congress Party, which is intended to complete implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

Gration told Congress recently that the goal is to conclude an agreement that will allow the Sudanese to return to their homes and resume their lives in safety and security. Previous peace efforts have faltered, Gration testified, and the United States has learned from those experiences. He laid out for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee what he called a "whole-of-government approach" for Sudan.

President Obama has made enhancing the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement a significant U.S. foreign policy objective, Gration said, and that is part of the reason he named a special envoy to negotiate agreements and further the fragile peace process.

The United States is engaging with the fragmented movements in Darfur to bring them to the peace table with a single voice, is working with Libya and Egypt to end the proxy war between Chad and Sudan, and is supporting the full deployment of the African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur to protect Darfuri civilians, Gration said.

The second aspect of the emerging U.S. strategy involves sustaining peace between the North and the South, he said. In January 2005, the Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, ending a 22-year war. However, Gration said, four and a half years after the agreement, peace remains fragile.

Sudan will hold national elections in April 2010 and referendums in Southern Sudan and the Abyei region in January 2011. Gration said the U.S. strategy calls for a functioning and stable Sudanese government, and one that will either include a government of Southern Sudan or coexist peacefully with an independent Southern Sudan. The United States is seeking to help the South improve its security capacity and become politically and economically viable if it chooses independence, he added.

Finally, Gration said the United States seeks increased and enhanced counterterrorism cooperation with the Sudanese, and to promote regional security.

On the trip, Gration will not go to Khartoum, but may meet with members of the government while in Egypt, Crowley said.

"In Egypt, he will meet not only with Egyptian Foreign Minister Aboul Gheit, but also Sudanese Presidential Adviser Ghazi Salahuddin, Libyan Secretary of the General People's Committee for Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation Musa Kusa, and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa," Crowley said.

"So General Gration, in the conduct of his duties, does meet with officials of the Sudanese government, as you would expect in terms of dealing with them on a range of issues, both what's happening in Darfur and with the North-South dialogue. He will not meet with President [Omar al-] Bashir," Crowley added.

Gration will also travel to Malakal in Southern Sudan to visit a Joint Integrated Unit regional headquarters to assess the capacity of these units to conduct security; he will continue bilateral discussions with the SPLM in Juba and with the NCP in Khartoum.

Crowley said he will then travel to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to resume talks with the leadership of key Darfuri armed movements on unification efforts in support of the Doha peace process. While in Ethiopia, Gration will also meet with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

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