Obasanjo to meet Sudanese rebels

ABUJA, Nigeria, June 18, 2005 (PANA) — Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo is scheduled
to meet with the two main rebels groups from Sudan’s western Darfur
region Saturday night in an effort to pump life into the floundering
Darfur peace talks in Abuja, sources at the talks said.

A member of the Sudanese government delegation, Mohammed Ibrahim, said
his delegation would not be part of the meeting, expected to hold at the
Aso Rock Presidential Villa.

The talks have yet to fully take off since resuming last Monday due to
the failure of the parties to agree on the draft agenda as well as the
Declaration of Principles (DOP).

While the government and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) have
made their inputs into the DOP, Sudan’s Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A)
has yet to do so.

A fresh crisis has also erupted with JEM declining to continue with the
talks due to Tuesday’s arrival in Abuja of the Chadian delegation for the
talks.

JEM opposes the participation of Chad at the talks, alleging that the
country had taken sides in the two-year crisis which has killed between
180,000 and 200,000 and displaced over 2 million in Darfur.

Spokesman for the talks, Nourreddine Mezni, confirmed to PANA that the
JEM had refused to participate in discussions on the work plan for the
talks due to Chad’s participation.

He said the chief mediator for the African Union (AU), Salim Ahmed Salim,
has been preoccupied in the last two days battling to get JEM to agree to
continue with the talks.

“Dr. Salim has commenced high level consultations within the continent to
resolve the trouble,” Mezni told PANA.

The difficulties notwithstanding, Mezni said the talks are not in
jeopardy in any sense, adding: “This is not a conference, it is a
negotiation, it is a process, there are no strict pattern, we are meeting
and consulting informally with all the parties and progress is being
made.”