Sudan’s govt, 2 rebel groups sign latest Darfur peace pact
By ADIGUN AIYEGBOKIKI
ABUJA, Nigeria, July 5, 2005 (AP) — Sudan’s government and two Darfur rebel groups Tuesday signed the latest in a string of agreements aimed at resolving the deadly two-year conflict in the country’s embattled western region.
Representatives of Sudan’s government, the Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement all signed a three-page “declaration of principles” aimed at helping calm the Darfur crisis.
Negotiators at the talks venue in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, agreed to broad commitments, including upholding democracy, the independence of the judiciary and “justice and equality for all, regardless of ethnicity, religion and gender.”
Insurgent and government representatives have signed numerous cease-fire and other pacts during past rounds of peace talks, but none has yet calmed the crisis in Darfur.
The document appeared to fall far short of the comprehensive peace agreement originally hoped for when the latest round of peace talks began last month.
“By adopting the Declaration of Principles, you have demonstrated your own determination that you will not let down the people of Darfur … and you will not let down our friends in the international community,” Salim Ahmed Salim, the African Union’s special envoy for Darfur told negotiators. The 53-nation African Union is hosting the peace talks, now in their fifth round.
Rebels from black African tribes took up arms in Darfur in February 2003, complaining of discrimination and oppression by Sudan’s Arab-dominated government. The government is accused of responding by backing a scorched-earth counterinsurgency by Arab militias, known as the Janjaweed.
War-induced hunger and disease have killed more than 180,000 people and driven more than two million from their homes, according to U.N. estimates.