Darfur rebels reject agenda for Sudan peace talks

ABUJA, Aug 24 (AFP) — Rebel leaders from Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region rejected an African Union-proposed agenda for talks with the Sudanese government aimed at ending an 18-month-old conflict.

The chief negotiator for the Justice and Equality Movement, Ahmed Mohammed Tugod, told reporters at talks in Abuja that his group objected to a reference in the agenda to the cantonment of its forces.

“We have clear reservations on the agenda and this is important because we do believe agendas should be agreed upon,” he said. “We need this issue — the issue of the cantonment — taken out of the agenda.

However, he confirmed that the rebel movement would return to the negotiating table at 9am Wednesday for further discussions.

Sudanese government envoys and the leaders of the JEM and another rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), had agreed earlier Tuesday to the agenda for AU-sponsored peace talks aimed at ending the war in the far west of Sudan.

AU chairman President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria and several senior African and UN officials Tuesday had welcomed the warring parties to the headquarters in Abuja of the west African bloc ECOWAS for the second day of the talks.

The UN estimates that between 30,000 and 50,000 people have died as a result of the conflict in Darfur, some 1.2 million others displaced from their homes and a further 180,000 forced to flee into neighboring Chad.