Sudan’s Darfur direct peace talks continues in Nigeria

Oct 4, 2005 (ABUJA) — Sudanese government and Darfur rebel groups met Tuesday for a second day of direct talks in Nigeria, with the visiting Dutch prime minister urging all parties to agree a power-sharing deal by the end of the year.

The sixth round of peace talks on Darfur were officially launched in mid-September but until this week, government and rebel negotiators in Nigeria’s capital had not held any direct discussions.

Instead, they attended several days of seminars on peace negotiating and then waited as Darfur’s main rebel group argued about the makeup of its delegation.

Addressing the parties at the start of negotiations on Tuesday, Dutch Prime Minster Jan Peter Balkenende urged all sides to make an effort to bring peace by the end of the year.

“The international community wants to see results, it cannot go on spending resources on problems which should already have been resolved and still can be resolved in the coming months,” said Balkenende.

The Dutch premier began a three-day visit to Nigeria on Monday that government officials said will include bilateral talks.

After decades of low-level clashes over land and water pitting nomads and villagers against one another in Darfur, rebels from ethnic African tribes launched a large-scale conflict in early 2003, accusing the Arab-dominated central government of neglect.

The central government is accused of responding by unleashing Arab tribal militias known as Janjaweed to murder and rape civilians and lay waste to villages.

More than 180,000 people have died in Darfur and another 2 million people have been displaced in the fighting.

(AP)