EU to hold talks with international officials on Darfur
Mar 07, 2006 (BRUSSELS) — European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana will hold a series of meetings Wednesday with officials from the U.S., African Union and Sudan on how to advance international efforts to solve the conflict in Darfur, his office said.
The talks at EU headquarters will focus on how key donors like the EU and the United States can help spur peace talks between the Darfur rebels and the Sudanese government, his office said in a statement Tuesday.
Officials said Solana would hold talks with Deputy U.S. Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, Sudan’s Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha and Alpha Oumar Konare, chairman of the AU’s Commission.
U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Hedi Annabi also is to attend the round of talks aimed at keeping peace efforts alive. Peace talks between Darfur rebels and Sudanese officials in Abuja, Nigeria, are “crucial,” the EU said.
“Only a political solution, based on mutual concessions by all sides, will enable this region to stabilize and its people to regain their confidence so that the displaced persons and refugees can return home,” it said in the statement.
The Brussels talks also are expected to focus on ensuring that oil revenues are fairly split among ethnic groups in Sudan. Officials also will discuss Sudan-Chad relations in the wake of the Darfur crisis.
Numerous rounds of peace negotiations, often stalled by internal divisions in the rebel movements, have failed to achieve any lasting settlement for the conflict in Darfur, which the U.N. has called the world’s gravest humanitarian crisis.
Washington has called for international forces, notably NATO, to bolster the 7,000-strong AU peacekeeping force in Darfur. Sudan, however, is not keen on a U.N. force taking over from the African Union.
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Monday he did not expect the alliance to deploy troops in Darfur.
Sudan has rejected the idea of non-African forces helping to restore peace in Darfur, where a three-year rebellion has resulted in the deaths of an estimated 180,000 people, mainly of hunger and disease, and the displacement of some 2 million others.
The AU’s peacekeeping mandate expires at the end of March. On Friday, ministers are to discuss whether the AU should hand over the mission to the U.N. with the AU mission is quickly running out of funds.
The U.N. Security Council recommended on Feb. 3 that the United Nations start planning to take over peacekeeping in Darfur. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged major powers to take part, saying an expanded force will need the kind of assets only a highly capable military can provide.
(ST/AP)