Sudanese peace talks near deadlock over rebel guns

ABUJA, Sept 2 (AFP) — Darfur’s tough-talking rebel groups refused Thursday to discuss disarming their forces at African Union peace talks and demanded an international inquiry into alleged atrocities by government forces.

The insurgents’ hardline stance — which came on the first day of talks on the security situation in the war-torn region of western Sudan — threatened to deadlock the dialogue and undermine the progress made so far on humanitarian issues.

“We are not going to accept the cantonment of our forces, even if it means the collapse of the talks,” said Abdelhafiz Mustapha Musa, a delegate from the Sudan Liberation Movement at the Abuja peace conference.

Government delegates had earlier insisted that the rebels disarm in parallel to the promised demobilisation of Khartoum’s proxy force, the Janjaweed Arab militia, which the United Nations has accused of attacks against civilians.

“We’ve started talks on the security issue. We will be talking about the simultaneous disarmament of the rebels and the Janjaweed, which has not been done,” said Sudan’s minister for humanitarian affairs, Mohammed Yusuf.

Rebel leaders have said that they will only stand down their forces once they have won a full political settlement from the government.

They allege that rural and arid Darfur and its black African minority tribes have been excluded from power and prosperity by Khartoum’s Arab elite.

They have demanded greater autonomy and a share in the national income of the oil-rich nation.

Last week, the Abuja talks almost broke down when rebel leaders reacted furiously to the news that their disarmament would be on the agenda.

Nigerian, Libyan and AU mediators persuaded them to remain at the table, but the issue is now likely to become a sticking point again.

Late on Wednesday, the delegates agreed to a deal which would guarantee access for humanitarian agencies to Darfur’s 1.2 million displaced people and increase their protection against attacks from militia groups.

“The protocol constitutes an important step in the efforts aimed at alleviating the suffering of the civilian population in Darfur,” said a statement from AU headquarters in Addis Ababa.

AU Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare urged both sides “to continue to show the same commitment in discussing the remaining items on the agenda of the political talks, bearing in mind the urgency of the situation.”

But rebel leaders were quick to point out that they had only agreed to the humanitarian protocol in principle and had not yet signed anything.

Mohammed Ahmed Tugod, chief negotiator for Darfur’s second rebel group the Justice and Equality Movement, said: “In order to sign the protocol we agreed yesterday, it’s important to settle all the issues of security.”

He also complained that the government had failed to observe a ceasefire deal signed between the parties on April 9 and said his side had brought this to the attention of AU mediators at the talks.

“We assured them that the Sudanese government does not respect the spirit of that agreement. We also discussed the issue of the disarmament of the Janjaweed and directly linked the Janjaweed to the Sudanese government,” he said.

“It is the government that gives them directives to commit attacks. Therefore it’s the responsibility of the Sudanese government to disarm the Janjaweed and meet its commitment to the international community,” he said.

The UN Security Council has ordered that Sudan disarm the Janjaweed, and gave the government a 30-day deadline. The deadline expired on Sunday and on Wednesday UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said attacks were continuing.

Tugod said: “We are now calling for a neutral international body to investigate the crimes committed against humanity in Darfur.”

The UN special envoy to Sudan, Jan Pronk, was due to brief the Security Council in New York on the crisis later Thursday.

Some UN member states want to impose diplomatic or economic sanctions against Sudan, while others want to boost the international presence in Darfur.

The African Union has sent 133 unarmed military observers in Darfur and a 300-strong force of Rwandan and Nigerian peacekeepers to protect them as they monitor a ceasefire signed between the government and rebels on April 9.