Darfur rebels, Khartoum sign declaration of principles at peace talks
ABUJA, July 5 (AFP) — The Sudanese government and rebel groups from the Darfur region agreed Tuesday a declaration of principles which will form the basis for future political dialogue at their African Union (AU)-sponsored peace talks.
The signature of the agreement marked the end of a bad-tempered fifth session of the Abuja conference in the Nigerian capital Abuja.
It will now break up having made, observers said, little more progress than previous attempts to resolve the 29-month-old conflict. Talks will resume no later than August 24, sources said.
Under the deal, details of which were given to reporters, the Arab-led Khartoum regime agreed to guarantee traditional tribal ownership rights over land in Darfur and allow the black African region autonomy under a reformed federal constitution.
Both sides also agreed that the results of future negotiations would be put to the people through “Darfur-to-Darfur dialogue and consultation”, without specifying the form such a process might take.
“This is just a beginning,” chief AU mediator Salim Salim said at the talks’ final public session, adding: “Some formidable challenges lie ahead.”
But he insisted: “I believe that by adopting this declaration the message from Abuja will be towards the ending of the conflict in Darfur and the realisation of peace, stability and security for all.”
More than 180,000 civilians have been killed and 2.5 million driven from their homes during fighting in the western Sudanese region, creating what UN agencies have dubbed the “world’s worst humanitarian disaster”.
The African Union has sent a peacekeeping force to monitor the oft-broken ceasefire signed by the parties in April last year, but five rounds of peace talks in the Nigerian capital have failed to find a political solution.
The government and two fractious rebel groups — the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudanese Liberation Army/Movement (SLM/A) — will now reconvene for further dialogue at a later date, AU officials said.
Both rebel groups launched an insurrection in February 2003 to protest what they see as the marginalisation of their impoverished and arid territory and its black African tribes by the mainly-Arab government in Khartoum.
Government forces responded with a tough crackdown backed by the Janjaweed, a brutal mounted militia which has been blamed by the United Nations and various foreign governments for devastating attacks on civilian populations.
Under the declaration of principles, both sides agreed to find ways to pay reparations to those who have suffered in the conflict and guaranteed the displaced an “inalienable right of return to their place of origin”.
Political power and Sudan’s national wealth will be shared in “accordance with fair criteria to be agreed by the parties” and all agreements will be incorporated into Sudan’s national constitution, the document said.
Mohammed Tugod, head of the JEM delegation at the talks, said that his group was disappointed with the document and that it had only signed up under pressure from the African Union and the broader international community.
“This document falls short of our full expectations. It does not include all that we wanted,” he told reporters.
SLM chairman Abedlwahed Mohammed Ahmed Nur said: “Now that we’ve adopted the declaration of principles, I call on the government to be as serious as we are. Then very soon we will sign a comprehensive agreement for peace.”
The chief government negotiator, Agriculture Minister Majzoub al-Khalifa, reaffirmed his side’s commitment to the AU-backed mediation and expressed confidence “that this march will continue until peace is achieved”.
There was no immediate word on when the talks would restart, but officials said that AU mediators would hold a news conference on Wednesday.