Ban support for Sudan peace deal

Ban Ki Moon has to perform a balancing act in Sudan

The UN secretary general has arrived in southern Sudan to show support for the peace agreement that ended a civil war between the north and south.

Mr Ban has met Salva Kiir - the former rebel now Sudan's first vice president under the peace deal, which came after a 21-year conflict.

Currently there are 10,000 UN peacekeepers in southern Sudan.

Later, Ban Ki-moon is to visit Sudan's western Darfur province, where conflict has caused wide-scale suffering.

UN officials say that without a lasting peace between north and south Sudan, there cannot be a resolution to the four-year Darfur conflict.

Mr Ban also named a Pakistani diplomat as his new special representative to Sudan to replace Jan Pronk, who was expelled a year ago for criticising the army.

Ashraf Qazi is currently the UN envoy to Iraq.

Rebel chief

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has agreed to let a key Darfur rebel leader travel abroad, Mr Ban said, after meeting Mr Bashir on Monday.

Suleiman Jamous has been in a UN medical facility in Sudan for more than a year, with the government saying he would be arrested as soon as he left UN protection.

He is seen as key to getting the different rebel factions to agree on a common position.

"Bashir said that Jamous would be taken to Kenya as soon as necessary arrangements had been made," Mr Ban said.

Some 2,000 people gathered in the south Sudan capital, Juba, on Tuesday to welcome the UN secretary general.

He is there to underline the UN support for the 2005 peace agreement signed by the government of Sudan and the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement.

Under it, the largely Christian and animist south is meant to be self-governing for six years, then it is to hold a referendum to decide whether or not to secede from Sudan. But preparations for that poll are falling behind schedule, BBC UN correspondent Laura Trevelyan reports.

The profits from Sudan's oil are supposed to be equally shared between north and south.

But our correspondent notes there is not yet an agreement on the final border between north and south which means the division of oil wealth cannot be completed. There are countries on the UN Security Council who would like to re-deploy the 10,000 UN peacekeepers in the south, but others argue that could undermine the peace agreement.

Darfur revisited

Mr Ban, who is to visit a Darfur refugee camp on Wednesday, has said the priority is to get a 26,000-strong UN and African Union force into position.

The new troops are not due to arrive until next year but violence continues, with hundreds killed in August.

Until now, an estimated 200,000 have died and 2.5 million displaced.

People in southern Sudan are still feeling the effects of the civil war

African countries are offering troops but Western nations have been slow to come up with the logistical support and the attack helicopters needed for such a massive peacekeeping operation, our correspondent, who is travelling with Mr Ban, says.

Mr Ban is also trying to encourage peace talks between the Sudanese government and the many rebel groups.

He will also visit neighbouring Chad and Libya, where leader Muammar Gaddafi has played a role in bringing Darfur rebels to negotiations.

Our correspondent says Mr Ban wants to see for himself the plight of the people of Darfur and understand the difficult conditions into which the world's biggest peacekeeping force will eventually be deployed.

This visit will be a delicate balancing act for Mr Ban, who has made Darfur his top priority, she adds.

He wants to encourage the Sudanese government, who have finally accepted peacekeepers, while condemning the killings and getting political talks going.