LOC23:36
20:36 GMT
(With Photos)
KHARTOUM, April 1 (KUNA) -- UN mission in Sudan announced Tuesday that
international peace-keeping forces in Southern Sudan have disabled 6,186
anti-personnel landmines in the Alluri area, 35 km west of the city of Juba.
This de-mining operation is the first of its kind in the history of
Southern Sudan and is the precursor to the imperative that no war will erupt
again between the North and the South, said minister of internal security in
Southern Sudan Paul Mioum.
With the destruction of the landmines in the Alluri area, Sudan would be
virtually devoid of anti-personnel landmines, said Landmine eradication
director Awadh al-Bashir, adding that so far 14,485 anti-personnel landmines
have been disabled in conflict-stricken regions of the country.
All efforts in clearing these landmines, he said, had been carried out by
the federal Sudanese government in conjunction with the UN and the government
of South Sudan. These efforts also reflect Sudan's abidance by the
international Ottawa Agreement on Landmine Eradication, he explained. Sudan is
a member of that Agreement.
On January 2005, the rebel group known as the popular movement for the
liberation of Sudan, no longer extant, signed a peace agreement with the
Sudanese government to put an end to 22 years of civil war between them which
resulted in the death and displacement of nearly two million people and the
existence of thousands of anti-personnel landmines. (end)
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