Sudan's Kiir warns of regional conflict over CPA failure.

May 2, 2009 (KISUMU) -- The Sudanese First Vice President Salva Kiir and the president of semi-autonomous South Sudan warned today that unraveling of the North-South peace agreement could drown the entire region onto war.

Sudanese First Vice President Salva Kiir (Picture courtesy of Larco Lomayat)

Kiir made the remarks from the western Kenyan city of Kisumu where he attended a state dinner hosted by Prime Minister Raila Odinga. He was accompanied by the cabinet minister for Presidential Affairs Luka Byong, Ambassador of the Republic of Sudan to Kenya Majok Guandong, head GOSS mission in Kenya Liaison office John Andruga Duku. "The war will not only affect the southern Sudan. It will infiltrate into Kenya and other countries. The problem in southern Sudan must be given attention by everybody" he warned. He accused some unspecified parties of trying to push his movement back into war but he stressed that "previous wars gave the people of Southern Sudan negative experience of retuning to war". The Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) headed by Kiir signed a peace agreement in 2005 ending decades of civil war between the North and South. However the Southern ex-rebel group has frequently complained about the lack of implementation. The hot pending issues between the two sides include the border demarcation elections law, census results, Kiir outlined. He suggested that the delay in releasing census results could be a result of an attempt to rig it without directly naming the ruling National Congress Part (NCP). Reports say that the South Sudan population was counted at 8.2 million or 20% of the country's population. The South Sudan officials have warned that they will not accept results reflecting its populations as being less than the third of the country or 11-13 million according to some other officials. The Kenyan prime minister said he is sympathetic with the cause of Southern Sudan saying that "nobody should sabotage the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement". Kenya has been one of the main parties that helped broker the CPA in 2005 which Kiir acknowledged thanking their neighbor for hosting Southern refugees during the civil war. The SPLM chairman received an Honorary Doctorate of Science by the Great Lakes University of Kisumu (GLUK) in recognition of peaceful transition during the demise of his predecessor John Garang who was killed in a helicopter crash in July 2005. (ST)

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