The U.S. envoy for Sudan issues urged the international community on Wednesday to renew its interest in the 2005 north-south peace agreement that has been threatened by recent violence. Scott Gration said a test of international commitment to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), signed in the Kenyan town of Naivasha, will come on June 23, when 30 countries and organizations attend a meeting in Washington. The meeting can help “restore that international commitment and to rekindle the passion that we had in Naivasha in 2005,” Gration said in his first news conference in Washington since his appointment in March. Gration who has traveled to Sudan, Qatar, Europe, and China to seek support for the CPA and end fighting in the western Darfur region, said “we have a lot of work to do” ahead of a referendum on southern Sudan's future in early 2011.
