Sudanese government says rebels to blame for talks failure

CAIRO, July 18, 2004 (dpa) — The Sudanese government said Sunday the two armed rebel groups’ withdrawal from negotiations “confirmed their lack of concern to end the suffering of their people in Darfur,” the Sudanese News Agency said.

The official agency was quoting a statement issued by the Sudanese government delegation in Addis Ababa, where talks were being held until the two rebel groups walked out Saturday.

The Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) ended negotiations after a marathon session of talks Friday and Saturday, mediated by the African Union (AU) and the United Nations.

“We were surprised by the withdrawal of the rebels. This position corresponds with the revel violations of the cease-fire agreement, the killing of innocents and the obstruction of humanitarian aid,” said the statement.

On Saturday, the rebels withdrew after accusing the government of not respecting the four-month-old ceasefire agreement.

AU and U.N. mediators have said they were nonetheless determined to bring all sides to the negotiating table again through “confidence-building measures”.

Both rebel groups hail from the black African population of the Darfur region of western Sudan, an area larger than France which for years has been riven by tensions between the black African and Arab populations.

An escalation in the conflict over recent months has seen up to 30,000 people killed and around 1.2 million forced from their homes by government-backed Arab Janjaweed militias. The situation has been described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Both the SLM and the JEM accuse Khartoum of failing to control the Janjaweed, which they say are still engaged in a campaign of intimidation against the civilian population.