Sudan seeks direct talks with Darfur rebels on draft deal
April 27, 2006 (ABUJA) — Sudanese government negotiators are seeking face-to-face talks with rebel leaders from the Darfur region about a draft peace agreement proposed by African Union (AU) mediators as Sunday’s deadline for a deal approaches.
Peace talks between the government and two Darfur rebel groups have dragged on for close to two years in the Nigerian capital Abuja and the parties are facing intense pressure to make new concessions to end the three-year-old conflict.
The AU, hurrying to meet an April 30 deadline, presented to the parties late on Tuesday an 85-page draft agreement that covers the three areas of security, power-sharing and wealth-sharing that are key to solving the conflict.
“The document constitutes a good base for discussion between us and the (rebel) movements,” Amin Hassan Omar, government delegation spokesman, said on Thursday in a first reaction to the draft.
“We are trying to continue talking to the movements to make it easier for both them and us to overcome the difficulties,” he said, declining to give details of contacts between the sides.
Leaders from the two sides have started having private, face-to-face meetings in recent weeks. For most of the two-year process they had been speaking through AU mediators.
One government delegate, who did not wish to be named, said Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha was planning a face-to-face meeting with Minni Arcua Minnawi, head of the most powerful faction of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) rebel group.
The delegate said he did not know when the meeting was due to take place and Minnawi could not be reached for comment.
The government delegation has been led throughout the peace process by presidential adviser Majzoub al-Khalifa, but the vice president arrived in Abuja three weeks ago and his presence has raised hopes that Khartoum was getting ready to make a deal.
Minnawi’s recent return to Abuja after months of absence suggested he too was serious about making progress, but the situation is more confused on the rebel side because of constant infighting between factions.
SANCTIONS
The SLA and the smaller Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) took up arms in early 2003 in ethnically-mixed Darfur, which is the size of France, over what they saw as neglect by Sudan’s Arab-dominated central government.
Khartoum is accused of arming the Janjaweed, militias drawn mainly from Arab tribes, to crush the rebellion. The ensuing campaign of murder, rape, looting and arson killed tens of thousands of people and drove more than 2 million into refugee camps in Darfur and neighbouring Chad.
The government denies responsibility.
On Tuesday, the U.N. Security Council imposed a travel ban and a freeze on assets abroad on four Sudanese accused of abuses in Darfur. They are an air force officer, a pro-government militia commander and two rebel leaders.
Khartoum called the sanctions “regrettable” and said they risked hindering the peace talks, but delegates in Nigeria have said they did not expect any impact on their negotiations.
The AU has asked the parties to give their reactions to the draft agreement by the end of Thursday.
The document offers compromise solutions on the main sticking points which have deadlocked the talks for months.
One of these is the rebels’ demand to keep their forces during a transitional period after a peace deal, while Khartoum wants them disarmed.
There are also two power-sharing disagreements stemming from rebel demands for a vice president’s post to be created for a Darfurian, and for a new Darfur regional government.
(Reuters)