Khartoum delegation heads to Chad for ceasefire with Darfur rebels
KHARTOUM, Sept 3 (AFP) — A Khartoum government delegation left for Chad Wednesday to sign a ceasefire with the Darfur rebels that was agreed upon earlier during secret talks, presidential palace sources said.
Meanwhile, press reports said that a meeting could take place in Kenya on Wednesday between First Vice President Ali Osman Taha and John Garang, head of the southern rebels, in order to push forward stalled peace talks.
The delegation to Chad is headed by Presidential Affairs Minister Al-Tayeb Ibrahim Mohammed Khair, who took part in the weekend talks with rebels, according to palace sources.
The trip to Chad “comes in the context of incessant efforts by the government to extinguish the flames of sedition in Darfur, now that the signs for a settlement to the Darfur problem have begun to appear on the horizon,” the Al-Anbaa daily said.
The Darfur rebels, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), said Tuesday they had agreed in principle to a ceasefire with the government during indirect talks over the weekend in Chad to end months of sporadic clashes with government forces in the western Darfur region of Sudan.
The talks, held in Abeche, 300 kilometers (186 miles) from the Sudanese border, were conducted through mediation by Chadian President Idriss Deby and other officials.
On Tuesday, an SLM spokesman told AFP his group was willing to sign a ceasefire with the government.
A press report said Wednesday that a total of 81 people had been killed in recent attacks by Arab militiamen on villages in the east Jebel Marrah district in Southern Darfur State.
The independent Al-Ayam daily, quoting South Darfur MP Farah Mustafa Abdullah, said the attacks on Monday by the armed militiamen, named as Jenjaweed, had also caused 2,700 people to flee their homes.
Abdullah said a joint army-police force was chasing down the militiamen.
The SLM has accused the Khartoum government of arming the Jenjaweed and other militias to stage attacks on non-Arab tribes in the Darfur provinces.
The independent Al-Sahafa daily meanwhile said First Vice President Taha could meet with Garang, head of the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), in Nefasha, about 90 kilometers (56 miles) west of Nairobi.
The reports said the talks would focus on obstacles in the Khatoum-SPLA peace process, after negotiations stalled last month over how power and resources should be shared during a period of self-rule for the south.
A new round of talks in scheduled for September 10.
Garang’s spokesman Yasser Arman told AFP Tuesday that it was the first time in 20 years that the SPLA leader was heading a delegation to peace talks with the Khartoum government.
Khartoum and the SPLA struck a preliminary agreement in July of last year granting the mainly Christian and animist south six years of self-rule before it decides in a referendum whether it wants to secede or remain united with the Arab and Muslim north.
The two sides have since been discussing the details of the self-rule period under the auspices of the Kenya-led Intergovernmental Authority on Development.