AU warns Darfur belligerents against boycotting peace talks

KHARTOUM, June 8 (AFP) — The African Union warned the warring parties in Sudan’s conflict-torn region of Darfur against boycotting the AU-sponsored peace negotiations opening this week in the Nigerian capital Abuja.

The head of the African Union Commission, Alpha Oumar Konare (L), is received by Sudanese state minister for foreign affairs Al-Tigani Fidhail (R) fellow AU mission chief in Sudan Baba Gana Kingibe at Khartoum airport, June8, 2005.(AFP).

“Absence from the forthcoming negotiations will be a crime,” AU commissioner Alpha Oumar Konare said at a press conference after meeting President Omar al-Beshire on his way to Abuja.

However, Konare said all parties had told the AU they would take part in the talks opening on Friday that aim to find a way to end more than two years of conflict in Darfur.

The conflict began in February 2003 pitting Khartoum and Arab Janjaweed militias against a largely black rebel movement, leaving 2.4 million people homeless and killing between 180,000 and 300,000, mostly ethnic African civilians.

“(The AU) is determined to resolve the Darfur problem in this round of talks,” Konare said, urging the parties to be “more serious without wasting time.”

Konare also appealed to the main rebel movements in Darfur to halt infighting after a number of civilians were killed in clashes between the Sudan Liberation Movement and its smaller rival, the Justice and Equality Movement.

Sudan’s State Foreign Minister Al-Tigani Salih Fidhail said Beshir and Konare had agreed on an African Union plan for increasing the African peacekeeping troops deployed in Darfur.