AU’s Salim to miss Darfur talks opening

Sept 15, 2005 (ABUJA) — African Union (AU) chief mediator Salim Ahmed Salim will miss the opening of the sixth session of the Darfur peace talks in Nigeria’s capital city of Abuja Thursday afternoon, AU spokesman Mousa Hamani Alzouma said.

Alzouma told PANA Ambassador Sam Ibok, AU director of peace and security
will represent Salim, who is currently attending the high-level 60th
session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

He said the mediator would join the talks “in a few days time”.

After the formal opening ceremony, the negotiations – which will centre
on the substantive issues of power and wealth sharing and security
arrangements – will be preceded by workshops for the participants.

The AU said in a statement last month that resumption of the talks
followed consultations by Chief Mediator Salim with the three parties –
the Sudanese government, Justice and Equality Movement and Sudan
Liberation Movement – in Tanzania.

Alzouma said a good number of the participants, including representatives
of the parties and the AU, had arrived in Abuja for the talks.

Before the adjournment of the fifth session of the talks in Abuja in
July, the parties signed a Declaration of Principle (DoP) to set the
basis for the sixth session.

The three-page document will guide future deliberations by the parties
and constitute the basis for a just, comprehensive and durable settlement
of the conflict in Darfur.

It is widely expected that the current round of talks will facilitate a
speedy resolution of the conflict in Darfur, which has left at least
180,000 dead and over 2 million others displaced since 2003.

(PANA/ST)