Darfur peace deal may be only weeks away – AU mediator

Jan 27, 2006 (ABUJA) — The two main Darfur rebel groups could reach a peace deal with the Sudanese government within weeks now that Khartoum has shown signs of softening its position, the African Union’s top mediator said on Friday.

“Unless something very dramatic happens in Darfur, we shall have a peace agreement in the next couple of weeks,” AU chief negotiator Sam Ibok told Reuters, adding he hoped to see a deal signed by mid-February. “The implementation is another thing.”

The Sudanese government has said the African Union’s recent decision to delay its presidency of the organisation over concerns about Darfur had provided added impetus to reach a peace agreement.

“The onus is on the government to be more forthcoming,” Ibok said. “The international community is impatient, the African Union is impatient. The people in Darfur are suffering.”

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than 2 million people forced from their homes since the mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in February 2003, saying Khartoum had marginalised the western region the size of France.

Six rounds of negotiation have produced a ceasefire and agreements on humanitarian access, with partial effectiveness on the ground, but major issues such as power sharing and wealth distribution are only now being discussed seriously. “We sense that there is a change of attitude on the part of the government and therefore this is also attracting a more positive reaction from the movements,” said the Nigerian diplomat. “We have left behind the polemic arguments.”

A framework deal agreed in the Nigerian capital Abuja could be embellished and finally signed in March, Ibok said. It would then need to be presented to other Darfur rebels who have not been party to the Abuja talks.

REBELS WANT CONCESSIONS

However, a spokesman for one rebel group said a deal would still require further concessions by the Khartoum government.

Ahmed Tugod, chief negotiator for the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), said big differences still remained between the sides on power sharing, compensation for war crimes, distribution of taxation and security arrangements.

“If there is commitment from the government, I think we can reach agreement by February,” he told Reuters. “We are not yet convinced that … the government has made a clear determination to solve the problem by peaceful means.”

The JEM and the larger Sudan Liberation Army have agreed with the government on 80 percent of the agenda on wealth-sharing, which covers issues such as war crimes compensation and distribution of tax revenues.

The parties put aside contentious issues such as rebel demands to merge the three areas of Darfur into a single autonomous region and appoint a vice-president from the region.

Instead, talks are focusing on who will run the desert region and how it will be represented in the central government’s institutions, Ibok said.

Improving security in Darfur should be international community’s first task, he said.

“The situation on the ground continues to deteriorate and as long as you have the clashes between the government and the movements … the level of confidence between the parties will be affected,” he said.

With an AU force of 7,000 peacekeepers due to run out of money in March, Ibok called on western donors who provide most of its funding to boost their contributions rather than back a proposed United Nations force, opposed by Khartoum.

“We don’t need the U.N. We have the requisite people who can do the job,” he said.

(Reuters)