Sudan committed to reaching deal with Darfur rebels- officials

KHARTOUM, Sudan, June 9, 2005 (AP) — Sudan is fully committed to reaching a peace deal with Darfur rebels at upcoming talks in Nigeria, government officials said Thursday.

The chief Sudanese government negotiator, Majzoub Khalifa talking to a member of his delegation last december.

A Sudanese delegation left Wednesday for the long-delayed talks on the violence-torn region, which are due to start Friday in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.

Tigani Yusuf Fidail, a foreign affairs department minister, said President Omar el-Bashir had assured the African Union that “the delegation was given freedom of movement, has been fully authorized and mandated to conclude the signing of a peace agreement.”

The two main rebel movements in Darfur have said they hold out little hope the talks can succeed unless more peacekeepers are sent to protect civilians.

The talks are scheduled to last three weeks, but Fidail said el-Bashir had agreed the delegation could remain in Abuja as long as it took to reach an agreement with the rebels.

The chief Sudanese government negotiator, Majzoub Khalifa, told the Sudan News Agency that he believed the agenda for negotiations would include political, economic and humanitarian aspects of the Darfur situation, as well as “final security arrangements.”

The crisis in Darfur erupted in 2003, when rebels took up arms against what they saw as years of state neglect and discrimination against Sudanese of African origin. The government is accused of responding with a counterinsurgency campaign in which the ethnic Arab militia known as Janjaweed committed wide-scale abuses against ethnic Africans.

At least 180,000 people have died, many from hunger and disease, and about 2 million others have fled their homes to escape the conflict between rebels on one side and government troops and Arab militias on the other.

Fighting has died down, but violence and rape targeting civilians continue to be reported. The African Union said Wednesday that two rebel groups that had been fighting each other in South Darfur had ceased fire ahead of the Abuja talks.

Those groups, the Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Army, have called for more peacekeeping troops to be sent to bolster the 2,270-strong African Union force in Darfur.

Plans to boost the force with another 5,000 troops have been bogged down by logistical problems and a lack of support in the region, which is the size of France.

However, North Atlantic Treaty Organization ministers were expected Thursday to give formal backing for an airlift of some of the 5,000 extra African troops to Darfur this summer. European Union ministers are expected to approve a separate E.U. airlift next week.