Peace talks for Sudan’s Darfur halted again as deadlock continues

ABUJA, Sept 14 (AFP) — African Union-brokered peace talks between the Sudanese government and Darfur rebel leaders bogged down again Tuesday, barely 10 minutes after delegates resumed negotiations following a three-day pause.

Delegates said that mediators had adjourned the session after hearing from the warring parties that there had been no change in their positions since Friday’s breakdown in dialogue.

The peace talks were adjourned Friday after the Sudanese government rejected an African Union plan to restore security in the western region of Darfur, where a 19-month conflict has claimed around 50,000 lives and forced 1.4 million from their homes.

An international observer at the talks told AFP that the chief mediator, Nigeria’s Algabid Hamid, “indicated at the start of the meeting (Tuesday) that intense negotiations had been under way for four days.”

Hamid “explained to the delegations that it had not been possible to make changes to the AU proposals because the two sides were camping on their positions,” the observer said.

The Nigerian chief mediator was to meet later Tuesday with Nigerian President Olesegun Obasanjo, current head of the African Union, to try to find a way out of the deadlock, he added.

Earlier, a delegate from one of two Darfur rebel groups at the talks confirmed that neither the government nor rebels had budged from their positions since the talks adjourned last week.

“The secretariat asked us if there was some changes in our positions but the parties are maintaining their positions,” said Bahar Ibrahim, a delegate from the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM).

“The talks will probably resume later,” he added.

Sudan’s deputy foreign minister Najeib Abdelwahab, who is attending the talks in the Nigerian capital Abuja, blamed the United States for the deadlock.

Last week US Secretary of State Colin Powell said that Sudan’s Arab-led regime was guilty of “genocide” following their bloody crackdown on the black African minority tribes suspected of supporting Darfur’s rebels.

“The negotiations have been very much undermined by Mr Powell’s declaration, which led our brothers (the rebels) to stay very firmly on their positions,” Abdelwahab told reporters at Abuja’s International Conference Centre.

“The United States need to inject new blood into these negotiations by sending the right signals to our brothers who are using this statement not to move forward in the talks,” said Abdelwahab.

“Tonight we should meet with President Obasanjo as head of the AU and after that we will decide about the future of the negotiations,” he said, adding that both sides and the mediators were waiting to see what steps the UN Security Council would take on Darfur.

The US has proposed a resolution aimed at stopping the violence in Darfur to the UN Security Council.

But several permanent, veto-wielding members of the council have objected to the draft, which calls for a beefed-up African Union force in Darfur and threatens sanctions on Sudan’s oil industry if Khartoum does not disarm and stop the militias.

The United States said it would like to have a vote this week on the draft resolution which also asks UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to form a commission to investigate whether genocide has taken place and to help bring to justice those responsible.

Washington is expected to present a revised text in the coming days.

Rebel delegates are frustrated that Khartoum has thus far refused to enter into negotiations on a political settlement for Darfur, concentrating instead on security measures and demanding the disarmament of its opponents.

But SLM spokesman Abduljabbar Dofa said that his group was not about to abandon the process.

“We have no intention of leaving the talks. We are ready to continue negotiations. You see us here to continue the dialogue,” he told reporters.

Earlier another SLM spokesman had told AFP by telephone from London that the government’s intransigence could force the rebels to quit the table.

“The negotiations are at a crossroads. They could collapse at any moment if the Sudanese government is incapable of presenting a positive vision for a political solution,” Mahgub Hussein said.