Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir on Tuesday reiterated the government's full commitment to the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in southern Sudan, the official SUNA news agency reported.

Addressing a ceremony celebrating the second anniversary of the signing of CPA in Juba, the capital of southern Sudan, al-Bashir said that any retreat from CPA would be a catastrophe to Sudan and the region.

Admitting a delay in implementing some items of the CPA, the Sudanese president accused the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), which signed the peace agreement with the government on Jan. 9, 2005, of bearing partial responsibility for that delay. Al-Bashir said that the existence of SPLM forces and some armed militia in the oil-rich areas was considered a violation of CPA provisions.

He described the CPA signing with SPLM as the most important achievement in Sudan history after the independence, reiterating his government's determination to realize peace in the western region of Darfur.

The CPA between the government and the SPLM formally ended the 21-year-old civil war between northern and southern Sudan, during which more than 2 million people are estimated to have died.

Meanwhile, al-Bashir denied in his capacity as the General Commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces accusations of supporting the Ugandan rebel forces of the Lord Resistance Army (LRA), saying that the Sudanese government had signed protocols with Uganda to halt LRA's activities in southern Sudan.

Source: Xinhua