Rival sides in western Sudan resume talks

NDJAMENA, April 25 (AFP) — Rival sides in a war in western Sudan’s Darfur region which has embroiled a million people in a humanitarian crisis resumed peace talks in the Chadian capital Ndjamena.

Chad’s President Idriss Deby joined representatives of the Khartoum government and two rebel groups after a day’s break during which mediators drew up a synthesis of the proposals made by each warring party, one of the mediators told AFP Sunday.

Sudanese government troops and Arab militias have since February last year been fighting the Movement for the Liberation of Sudan (MLS) and the Movement for Justice and Equality (MJE) in Darfur.

The war is estimated by the United Nations to have claimed at least 10,000 lives, uprooted a million people from their homes to other parts of Sudan, and driven more than 100,000 others to seek shelter across the Chadian border.

For UN agencies, the refugees and displaced people face the world’s worst humanitarian crisis of the day, with the luckiest of them living in makeshift camps and others scrabbling for the barest means of survival.

On April 8, the rival sides signed a renewable ceasefire deal, but the MJE accuses Khartoum’s fighters of violating it several times.

After delays, peace talks resumed in Ndjamena on Friday, as a UN human rights panel adopted a mildly worded text on alleged atrocities carried out by pro-government forces sometimes described as “white Arabs”.

Such fighters are accused of pursuing a campaign of ethnic cleansing of people in Darfur who are also mainly Muslim but black.

A mediator said that bids to set up a ceasefire monitoring committee and other aspects of a “definitive settlement” were complicated by splits between the MJE’s military and political wings.

In Geneva, the top UN human rights forum adopted a softly worded text on the alleged government-backed atrocities, prompting the US to demand a second vote for stronger action, but a majority of the 53-member panel rejected this.

“The horrific events in Darfur demand strong action,” Williamson said.

“I ask my colleagues to reflect on the ethnic cleansing, that 30,000 people have been killed and 900,000 IDPs (internally displaced persons) exist,” he added.

The rebels of Darfur, inhabited mainly by non-Arab Muslims, are pushing for economic development of their desperately poor land and for a more equitable sharing out of meagre national resources.

They complain that Darfur has been marginalised by Arab Muslim authorities in Khartoum.