Former envoys call for international summit on Darfur peace
June 24, 2008 (UNITED NATIONS) — Former UN and African Union envoys for Darfur on Tuesday called for an international summit on the 5-year-old conflict to pressure Sudan and rebel groups to end violence and restart stalled peace talks.
In a bleak report to the U.N. Security Council disclosed by Reuters, UN special envoy Jan Eliasson said there was “reason to seriously question whether the parties are ready to sit down at the negotiation table and make the compromises necessary for peace.”
Eliasson and his African Union counterpart Salim Ahmed Salim said international organizations, the 15 members of the Security Council and other U.N. member states should pressure the government and rebels to end hostilities and make peace.
They said that a “high-level international meeting” including Sudan, Security Council countries, other major powers and African states, as well as probably the rebels, might help force Khartoum and the rebels to make peace.
“As a new approach is required in dealing with this crisis, such a meeting will provide a unique opportunity for reflection, consideration and action,” Salim told the council.
Eliasson said a summit would provide an opportunity for countries to use their influence and “bilateral leverage” to pressure Khartoum and the rebels to resume peace talks.
Salim made it clear that negotiations between Khartoum and the rebels had ground to a halt.
“The political process has reached an impasse,” Salim said. “There is a need to rethink the strategy on the way forward.”
Since a foiled attack carried by the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) against the Sudanese government in Khartoum on May 10, the government says it does not want to negotiate with JEM which Khartoum says is backed by Chad.
LIST OF PEACE PREREQUISITES
Eliasson and Salim both listed several things that must happen if there was to be peace in Darfur.
First of all, the 2005 peace deal between northern and southern Sudan that ended two decades of civil war must be fully implemented so that the Sudanese government could show it is a trustworthy partner.
Secondly, Chad and Sudan needed to normalize relations and put an end to the escalating violence, they said. Both Chad and Sudan accuse each other of supporting rebel groups that oppose the other’s government.
Finally, peace talks must resume and UNAMID must be fully deployed. Western countries have blamed Khartoum for the slow deployment, accusing it of handpicking nationalities and blocking non-African contingents.
But U.N. officials complain that troop-contributing countries have failed to provide essential hardware, such as helicopters, which UNAMID need to travel across Darfur, a region roughly the size of France.
Salim warned the council that even if all 26,000 UNAMID troops were deployed in Darfur, they would not bring calm to western Sudan if the government and rebels did not want peace.
International experts estimate that some 300,000 people have died and another 2.5 million been left homeless because of the conflict in Darfur. Khartoum says 10,000 have died.
(ST)