VOA标准英语2010年-Groups Warn of Return to Sudanese War

Ten international aid groups, including Oxfam, World Vision, the International Rescue Committee, and Save the Children, have released a report urging sustained international engagement with Sudan's two ruling peace partners in order to avoid a return to conflict.

Oxfam spokesperson Alun McDonald said that the 2005 peace agreement between the North and South is facing an extremely critical stretch.

"We have just seen the end of a year where there has been a huge increase in violence," he said.  "There have been growing political tensions between the North and the South, and also within the South itself.  The peace agreement which was signed five years ago this week is looking extremely fragile."

The peace deal dictated¹ a six-year interim² period during which the southern SPLM rebels would be given semi-autonomous control over the South and during which national elections were to be held.  At the end of the interim period, now only one year away, the South is to be granted a regional vote for independence.

The national polls have been pushed back twice and are now set for April.  Tensions surrounding the independence vote, which is widely expected to result in a determination for secession, have been pushing the boiling point for several months as arrangements for the contentious³ referendum are set into law. 

Meanwhile, the South has seen an explosion of violence, mostly due to bloody⁴ inter-tribal clashes.  More than 2,500 were killed during the course of 2009 - many more than in the headline-catching western region of Darfur - and 350,000 have been displaced.

The peace deal was mediated⁵ by a number of outside countries, including the United States, Britain, Norway, and regional neighbors.  The report accuses these governments of paying little attention to the implementation⁶ of the agreement once it was signed.

The head of southern Sudan humanitarian⁷ operations for the International Rescue Committee, Richard Poole, says the region needs the international community to re-focus and open serious dialogue with the two sides. 

"The more engagement of the international community in this process, the more people are helping⁸ to support it, are monitoring the terms of the CPA [Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement], supporting both the government of the North and South, the greater the possibility of the referendum going ahead, and an outcome whatever it happens to be taking place peacefully.  If the referendum does not go ahead, we can expect a return to civil war," he said.

The 2005 peace agreement ended a 20-year civil war that killed two million people, mostly Southerners.  The war broke out after only 10 years of peace, following a previous rebellion that ended in 1972.

1 dictated   

v.大声讲或读( dictate的过去式和过去分词 )；口授；支配；摆布

参考例句：

• He dictated a letter to his secretary. 他向秘书口授信稿。
• No person of a strong character likes to be dictated to. 没有一个个性强的人愿受人使唤。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 interim   

adj.暂时的，临时的；n.间歇，过渡期间

参考例句：

• The government is taking interim measures to help those in immediate need.政府正在采取临时措施帮助那些有立即需要的人。
• It may turn out to be an interim technology.这可能只是个过渡技术。

3 contentious   

adj.好辩的，善争吵的

参考例句：

• She was really not of the contentious fighting sort.她委实不是好吵好闹的人。
• Since then they have tended to steer clear of contentious issues.从那时起，他们总想方设法避开有争议的问题。

4 bloody   

adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染

参考例句：

• He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
• He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。

5 mediated   

调停，调解，斡旋( mediate的过去式和过去分词 )； 居间促成； 影响…的发生； 使…可能发生

参考例句：

• He mediated in the quarrel between the two boys. 他调解两个孩子之间的争吵。
• The government mediated between the workers and the employers. 政府在工人与雇主间搞调和。

6 implementation   

n.实施，贯彻

参考例句：

• Implementation of the program is now well underway.这一项目的实施现在行情看好。

7 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

8 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。