Sudan agrees that AU troops can disarm rebels, talks reopen

ABUJA, Aug 25 (AFP) — Sudan’s government will accept a larger African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur if the troops are used to contain and demobilise rebel forces, the head of Khartoum’s team at peace talks said Wednesday.

“They may need more forces besides the protection of the (AU) monitors to protect the cantonment of the rebels, and we agree about that,” Agriculture Minister Majzoub al-Khalifa said just before AU-sponsored peace talks in the Nigerian capital went into their third day.

Since February last year, the western Darfur region of Sudan has been riven by a war pitting rebels of black African origin against government soldiers and Khartoum’s proxy Arab militia, the Janjaweed.

The Khartoum government would retain responsibility for the protection of civilians, al-Khalifa told reporters outside the conference centre where talks to end an 18-month rebel war resumed Wednesday after stalling momentarily over the issues of rebel demobilisation and sending in more AU troops.

The Janjaweed are accused by some western governments and international organisations of carrying out a scorched-earth genocidal campaign on villagers, displacing them inside Sudan and sending others fleeing abroad. The United Nations estimates that 1.4 million people have fled their homes in Darfur.

Al-Khalifa said before the talks resumed that the African Union should deal with the cantonment and demobilisation of the rebels “when we start to disarm the Janjaweed, and we have started.”

Last week, 150 Rwandan soldiers deployed in Darfur as the first contingent of an initial 300-strong AU force