US’s Zoellick : Peace deal could satisfy Darfur parties
May 5, 2006 (ABUJA) — US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick on Friday said an international peace proposal to end the protracted fighting in western Sudan’s Darfur could satisfy the warring parties.
Despite massive pressure from international mediators, only the Sudanese government and the main faction of one of the rebel groups — the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) — agreed to sign the deal.
Another SLM faction and the second rebel group — Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) — refused to sign it, but Zoellick said mediators were making efforts to make them change their position.
“What this agreeement does, it creates an obligation on the government to take the steps many people around the world want them to take in term of disarming and neutralizing the Janjaweed,” he said.
“It also creates an opportunity for the rebel movements to begin (the) integration process. They already have an obligation to ceasefire,” he said, adding “the agreement creates political opportunities so people will have to decide if they want to be part of it or not.”
He said there was already an obligation for the two parties, the rebels as well as Khartoum, to maintain the ceasefire, agreed on in N’Djamena in April 2004, to undermine the risk for renewed fightings.
The US envoy said international mediators were trying to get the Abdulwahid al-Nur-led SLM faction to change its hardline position.
“You need to look at the proportions that are represented by the groups. You have the group that has the most significant forces on the ground, Minni Minawi group,” he said.
“We are getting contacts with Abdulwahid al-Nur and his people saying they don’t want to be left out,” he assured.
He said the AU Peace and Security Council would meet on May 15.
Darfur, an arid desert region of western Sudan the size of France or Texas, erupted into civil war in early 2003 when armed local movements began fighting the Arab-led government in Khartoum, demanding more autonomy for the region.
In response, the Sudanese regime unleashed the Janjaweed militia to carry out brutal attacks on Darfur’s largely black African population. The war has caused at least 180,000 deaths and left 2.4 million people homeless.
(ST)