AU sets up media panel for Darfur peace talks
Oct 3, 2005 (ABUJA) — The African Union (AU) has set up a media committee on the sixth round of peace talks on Sudan’s troubled region of Darfur, AU chief mediator said Monday, after a negotiator declared the failure of the talks.
He said that contrary to the decision that party representatives should not comment on the substantive negotiations as this is the responsibility of the chief mediator, a representative of one of the parties declared on a television interview that the talks had collapsed and failed.
“Such a statement was extremely unhelpful,” the Chief Mediator said.
“We have now entered into the most critical period of these talks and I appeal to all the leaders of all the parties, to ensure that their spokespersons exercise maximum restraint in their dealings with the media,” he said.
When such a committee was established during the fifth round of talks that ended on July 5, some of the parties failed to observe the code of conduct put in place, he recalled.
The sixth round of talks resumed on September 15 but substantive negotiations between Sudan’s government and the two rebel groups in Darfur began Monday amid repeated violations of a ceasefire agreement by both parties.
The tripartite talks in Abuja involve the AU, the government of Sudan and the rebel groups represented by the Sudan Liberation Army/Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement.
The Darfur conflict, which flared up in February 2003, has claimed many lives and driven more than one million others from their homes.
The AU has brokered a shaky ceasefire and struggled to find a lasting solution through five previous rounds of talks, which however failed to get substantial agreements.
(Xinhua/ST)