US governor hopeful for breakthrough in Darfur crisis
Jan 9, 2007 (EL FASHER) — U.S. governor and potential presidential candidate Bill Richardson pressed delegates from Darfur’s rebel factions Tuesday to participate in a 60-day ceasefire and hold peace talks with the government.
On a one-day visit to Darfur, Richardson met in the North Darfur state capital of El Fasher with local government leaders and the commander of the overwhelmed African Union peacekeeping force in the region.
The New Mexico governor also met with a few of Darfur’s 2.5 million refugees and held talks with delegates from various rebel groups battling the government in this remote region of western Sudan where more than 200,000 people have been killed in four years of fighting.
The commander of the African Union peacekeepers, Maj. Gen. Luke Aprezi, told Richardson he desperately needs more troops if he is to end the spiraling violence plaguing Darfur civilians and chasing many international aid workers from the region.
“The force is too small to do the job we are doing,” Aprezi told the U.S. governor. “We need to be enhanced. We need more troops on the ground,” he said of his 7,000-strong force, meant to pacify an area nearly the size of Texas.
While at AU headquarters, Richardson also had discussions with delegates from some of the deeply divided rebel factions that refused to sign the Darfur Peace Agreement with the Sudanese government last May.
Richardson told the rebels he had asked Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to agree to a temporary ceasefire during a meeting Monday in the capital of Khartoum.
“We all want peace,” said Richardson. “We just want to bring it to you.”
Col. Abul Abdallah Ismail of the Sudan Liberation Movement expressed frustration that the government has continued to arm militias in Darfur. Though SLM leader Minni Minawi signed the peace deal with Khartoum last May, SLM troops fought janjaweed militiamen as recently as December, and several splinter SLM factions have joined other rebel groups battling the government in the region.
The Arab-dominated Sudanese government denies backing the janjaweed militia of Arab nomads to help fight Darfur’s ethnic African rebels. But the U.N., the AU and international aid groups say Khartoum is massively arming the janjaweed and the paramilitary has recently carried out several deadly raids against civilians with the regular army’s support.
The rebel delegates in El Fasher told Richardson the rebellion wasn’t making offensive attacks against the army.
Under pressure from Richardson, Ismail agreed to meet with the government if there is prior agreement on a 60-day ceasefire. “When the government is serious we have no problem,” Ismail said.
Richardson is planning to meet al-Bashir again Wednesday and promised the rebel emissaries he would report back to them after that meeting.
Richardson’s trip to the region could be a boost for a possible bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008 by drawing attention to his extensive foreign policy background, including his tenure as U.S. envoy to the U.N. during the Clinton administration.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said he wouldn’t characterize Richardson’s visit as “freelancing,” but rather said it underscores that al-Bashir’s government is “getting the message from multiple directions about what they need to do.”
McCormack said the administration’s new special envoy for Sudan, Andrew Natsios, had met with Richardson before his trip. Natsios has experienced a number of frustrations in his initial dealings with the al-Bashir government and is now seeking Chinese help to apply economic pressure on its Sudanese trading partner.
Al-Bashir has fiercely rejected for months a Security Council plan to replace the African force in Darfur with some 20,000 U.N. peacekeepers, but is now conducting negotiations for a “hybrid mission” of combined U.N. and AU personnel to deploy.
The Save Darfur Coalition brought Richardson to Sudan because the governor has successfully negotiated in the past with al-Bashir. In September, the governor persuaded al-Bashir to release a New Mexico journalist imprisoned in Darfur.
Richardson also worked with al-Bashir in 1996 to negotiate the release of three Red Cross workers held hostage by Sudanese rebels.
Darfur was due to meet officials in the South Darfur capital of Nyala later Tuesday before returning to Khartoum.
The fighting in Darfur began in February 2003 when the region’s ethnic African population revolted against what they saw as decades of neglect and discrimination by the Khartoum government.
(AP)