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News :: Civil & Human Rights : International Relations : Peace |
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More Darfur peace talks against backdrop of continuing violence |
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by CERRV via Scott Edwards
Email: scottisimo (nospam) hotmail.com (verified) |
15 Dec 2004
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SUMMARY & COMMENT: Peace talks to end almost two years of conflict in
Darfur are set to restart on Friday but a top UN official warned that
the new round was headed for failure unless the Sudanese government and
rebel groups stopped blasting holes in a ceasefire agreement. |
TITLE: More Darfur peace talks against backdrop of continuing violence
AUTHOR: Claire Mc Evoy, Abuja
CATEGORY: Sudan
DATE: 12/10/2004
SOURCE: IRIN News
More Darfur peace talks against backdrop of continuing violence
Around 2.3 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance Peace
talks to end almost two years of conflict in Darfur are set to restart
on Friday but a top UN official warned that the new round was headed for
failure unless the Sudanese government and rebel groups stopped blasting
holes in a ceasefire agreement.
At the previous round of African Union-sponsored talks last month in the
Nigerian capital, Abuja, both sides signed accords pledging to improve
security in the western Sudan region and guarantee aid workers access to
civilians caught up in the crisis.
Since then the AU has reported rebel attacks and government military
raids which have forced thousands of innocent Darfuris to flee their
homes, and several aid agencies including the UN World Food Programme
and the charity Save The Children have had to temporarily suspend their
work in certain areas. Delegates from Darfur’s two main rebel groups
arrived in the Abuja on Friday for the fourth round of negotiations and
Khartoum representatives were expected in time for meetings to begin in
the evening.
But ahead of the talks, the UN’s Special Representative for Sudan, Jan
Pronk, questioned what could be achieved against a backdrop of continued
fighting. "This round of negotiations... is headed for failure if the
parties do not show restraint," Pronk said in a statement on Thursday,
expressing his concern at the escalation of violence in Darfur.
In Abuja on Friday, AU officials struck a more hopeful tone. AU
spokesman Assane Ba said that after looking at how the November security
and humanitarian accords had fared, the talks would focus on political
and socio-economic issues, which he described as the last outstanding
issue on the agenda.
The Darfur conflict erupted in February 2003 when the rebels took up
arms against the government, accusing Khartoum of decades of neglect and
oppression. The Sudanese government tried to put down the rebellion
using an Arab militia, known as the Janjawid, which has also been
accused of waging a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the villagers
in Darfur.
At the November talks, the AU drafted a declaration of principles which
included recognising the ethnic, cultural, religious and social
diversity in Sudan, vowing to uphold the unity and sovereignty of the
country, and the need for an equitable distribution of power and
national wealth. "We will try and finalise the issues and reach some
understanding," Ba told IRIN.
Before leaving for Abuja, the head of Sudan’s delegation Majzoub
al-Khalifa, told reporters in Khartoum that the government would do its
best to reach an agreement "before the end of this year so that peace
will be finalised by January."
On Friday leaders from the two rebel movements - the Sudanese Liberation
Movement/Army (SLM/A) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) -
declined to talk to reporters in Abuja about what they hoped to achieve
during the talks until their consultations to fix common positions were
completed.
But privately, most rebel delegates stressed their minimum demands
remained achieving regional autonomy for Darfur. “We’re looking for a
federal system that will decentralise power,” JEM delegate Ibrahim
Sadiq, told IRIN. “We’ve tried centralisation since independence, but
it’s nonsense.”
The UN calls Darfur the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Tens of
thousands of people have died and about 2.3 million more are in
desperate need of aid. The fighting has displaced about 1.45 million
Sudanese within Darfur, and sent another 200,000 fleeing across the
border into Chad. "Chaos is looming as order is collapsing," UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan warned in his latest report, released a
week ago.
Around 900 AU monitors are on the ground, although more than 3,000 have
been pledged. And on Thursday the New York-based group Human Rights
Watch called for their immediate deployment with an enlarged mandate to
protect civilians. The current round of talks in Abuja are expected to
last about two weeks, delegates said. |
