UN S.G. supports Sudan/Darfur peace deal

Sep.4.- 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. Sudan's conflict

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.

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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.
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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 ...

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