US envoy hopes for Darfur peace deal by year end
Oct 22, 2005 (KHARTOUM) — A visiting senior US official aired hope that Khartoum and rebels in Sudan’s embattled western Darfur region would clinch a peace deal before the end of the year.
US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer underlined that US sanctions against Khartoum would not be lifted as long as calm did not return to Darfur.
“We are hoping that at the latest by the end of the year you will have a political solution to the crisis in Darfur,” Frazer told reporters after talks with President Omar al-Beshir.
“As long as the situation continues in Darfur, it would be very difficult for the US and for President (George W.) Bush to make the case that the human rights sanctions should be lifted,” she added.
Sanctions against Sudan have been in place since 1993 when it was put on the State Department list of states that sponsor terrorism.
Separately, an asset freeze and travel ban on senior officials were imposed in 2004 over the government’s failure to stop atrocities in Darfur.
“The US still holds its position that genocide has occurred in Darfur,” Frazer said in reference to Khartoum’s repression of an armed uprising by ethnic minority rebels.
Between 180,000 and 300,000 civilians have since died — many of them in brutal raids by the government-sponsored Janjaweed militia — and more than two million villagers have been driven from their homes and into camps.
Frazer said her visit aimed to “put pressure on the government of Sudan and on the rebels in Darfur to stick to the ceasefire and to work to achieve peace through the negotiations in Abuja.”
The latest round of African Union-mediated talks in the Nigerian capital was suspended for a month on Thursday after making little progress towards a settlement of the 30-month-old conflict.
“The US has an ambassador in Abuja who is trying to push the parties to negotiate and considering to hold a conference with the SLA (Sudanese Liberation Army) to end factionalism and be united as one team,” in the negotiations, she said.
AU mediators said that the talks had been postponed to allow the SLA’s political arm — the Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM) — to resolve internal differences which have undermined the negotiations and to enable delegates to celebrate the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
The delegations are due to return to the Nigerian capital on November 20, with the talks formally beginning the following day.
During her three-day visit Frazer also traveled to south Sudan, where a January peace deal is being implemented with Khartoum.
“The US will put pressure on the national unity government and the south Sudan government to end the slowness in implementing the Comprehensive Peace Agreement,” she said.
Nine months after the agreement was signed, the vast war-ravaged south remains unstable. Several days of deadly rioting following the July death in a helicopter crash of veteran southern leader John Garang underlined the risks of renewed unrest.
Frazer was due to leave Khartoum later on Saturday.
(AFP/ST)