Darfur rebel group will be wrong not to attend talks
Sept 6, 2005 (Cairo) — Darfur’s main rebel group will be making a big mistake if it does not attend next week’s peace talks in Nigeria, Sudan’s foreign minister warned here on Tuesday.
Mustafa Osman Ismail’s comments came ahead of African Union-brokered talks scheduled for Sept. 15 in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, aimed at ending the two-year Darfur conflict.
“The Sudan Liberation Army would commit a very big mistake if it did not attend the talks and would prove that it was not ready for a peaceful solution and disinterested in solving the issue,” Mustafa Osman Ismail told reporters after meeting Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Aboul Gheit.
Ismail’s government has authorized its negotiators to conclude an agreement with the rebels.
The SLA apparently called for talks set down in August to be postponed so it could hold an important leadership meeting, said Jan Pronk, the head of the United Nations in Sudan.
Ismail, in Cairo for a Thursday Arab League meeting, said any rebel insistence not to attend the upcoming talks means they want the current difficult humanitarian and security situation in Darfur to continue and are benefiting from the chaotic circumstances.
At least 180,000 people have died – many from hunger and disease – and more than 2 million driven from their homes during the Darfur conflict, which began when rebels from ethnic African tribes took up arms in February 2003, complaining of discrimination and oppression by Sudan’s Arab-dominated government.
The government is accused of unleashing Arab tribal militia known as the Janjaweed against civilians in a campaign of murder, rape and arson.
The A.U. mediates the Darfur talks and maintains about 5,500 peacekeepers, military observers and civilian police in the vast region to monitor a shaky cease-fire deal.
On Saturday, the AU denounced the SLA for not observing a Darfur cease-fire deal and warned that its actions would affect negatively on the peace talks.
Ismail, who also met with the Arab League chief Amr Moussa, said Sudan’s interim government, a key component of a January peace deal signing that ended the 21-year southern civil war, was expected to be announced later this week.
The announcement hinged on the naming of who would be energy minister.
All former southern rebel groups and some northern opposition parties will join the government, Ismail said.
However, the Umma party, Sudan’s largest opposition movement led by former Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi, and Islamic ideologue Hassan Turabi’s Popular Congress Party will remain in opposition.
AP/ST.