Sudan: Darfur lawyers urge negotiators to discuss core issues in conflict

Sudan: Darfur lawyers urge negotiators to discuss core issues in conflict
BBC Monitoring Service – United Kingdom
Published: Aug 20, 2007

Some experts say the toll is higher but Khartoum puts the figure at nine thousand.

Text of report by independent Sudanese newspaper Akhbar al-Yawm on 19 August

The committee of Darfur lawyers has announced that it intends to submit new proposals to mediators, holdout rebel groups and the government to overcome current disagreements by focusing on core issues which represent one of the reasons for the conflict.

The committee further commended resolution 1769 regarding the deployment of hybrid forces in Darfur, but criticized the positions of some states towards the resolution including China, Russia and South Africa.

They further reiterated the fact that the deployment of international troops in Darfur would amount to the largest peacekeeping operation in the world. However, the committee said a strategy was needed for the resolution’s successful implementation so that it would not ‘get lost’ like the previous resolutions, which talked of disarming the Janjawid and arresting those involved in crimes in Darfur.

The committee activists, Al-Sadiq Ali Hasan and Abd-al-Rahman al-Qasim, told Akhbar Al-Yawm that the committee’s proposal would be to get focused in the next round of negotiations on the essential issues regarding the conflict.

These issues include a fair share of power, democratic transformation and elections. They said issues such as hawakir [land ownership rights] and conducting a Darfuri-Darfuri dialogue should be discussed at a later stage after the fundamental issues were settled.

Hassan explained that it was pointless to raise the hawakir issue during negotiations because this is a local problem while trials [of Darfur criminals] are of an international nature and are handled by the competent international bodies.

Hasan further said they would be stressing the importance of discussing the issue of fair wealth and power distribution for all Sudanese and a fair representation for Darfur in the executive, legislative and judiciary levels of Khartoum State’s government.