Darfur rebels dissatisfied as push for peace intensifies
April 28, 2006 (ABUJA) — Rebels from the Darfur region of Sudan are dissatisfied with a proposed peace settlement, rebel leaders said on Friday, as pressure built for them to strike a deal with the government by a Sunday deadline.
Mediators from the African Union (AU) have proposed a draft agreement on security, power-sharing and wealth-sharing aimed at ending the 3-year-old conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people in Sudan’s arid west.
Several rebel leaders said they would be unable to meet the Sunday deadline set by the AU to conclude the talks, which have dragged on for two years in the Nigerian capital Abuja.
“The deadline of April 30 is impossible because we need time. … Our rights must be in the document or else we will not accept it,” said Abdel Wahed Mohammed al-Nur, head of one of the factions of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA).
The government, by contrast, sounded upbeat about prospects for a deal as diplomats, including U.N. envoy to Sudan Jan Pronk, converged on Abuja to make a final push for peace.
“The AU proposal is a good framework for the upcoming settlement,” Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha told Reuters after a meeting with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.
AU chief mediator Salim Ahmed Salim said he was uncertain about whether or not the rebels would finally agree to sign.
“It’s difficult to say. I think within the (rebel) movements there are some who recognize this is a unique opportunity for them. I hope they don’t make the mistake of letting it go,” Salim told Reuters.
The rebels’ main problem with the draft is that it does not meet their demands for Darfur to get a new post of Sudanese vice president and a new regional government. They have other objections on issues ranging from compensation to disarmament.
However, observers at the talks said some powerful rebel leaders, including Minni Arcua Minnawi who heads the other SLA faction, were looking for ways to reach a deal.
NEGLECT
The rebels from ethnically mixed Darfur took up arms in early 2003 over what they saw as neglect by the Arab-dominated central government. The rebels accuse the government of using proxy Arab militias to crush them, but Khartoum denies this.
Tens of thousands of people have died and more than 2 million have fled to refugee camps in Darfur and neighbouring Chad because of the killing, looting and raping.
The U.N. World Food Programme said on Friday it would cut food rations for more than 6 million people in Sudan, half of them in Darfur, due to a lack of funds.
Donor countries appear to have tired of the conflict, despite signs that malnutrition is again on the rise among people living in the squalid refugee camps, it said.
The cuts were imposed after the agency received only 32 percent of its annual appeal of $746 million for Sudan.
The AU has 7,000 ceasefire monitors in Darfur, but they have been unable to contain the violence.
Discussions are under way to transfer the mission to the United Nations but Khartoum has said it would not allow U.N. troops in Darfur before a peace agreement is reached.
NATO ministers said on Friday they were ready to increase assistance in Darfur, but agreed any presence would be limited and only in support of AU or U.N. efforts.
“We are in the early planning stages for what we can offer next but the consensus is that the NATO footprint should be as limited as possible,” said one observer of the foreign ministers’ talks in the Bulgarian capital Sofia.
Five members of the U.S. Congress were arrested at a demonstration held at the Sudanese embassy in Washington on Friday as the campaign for peace in Darfur gathered steam.
Protests were planned in several U.S. cities this weekend to increase pressure on the Sudanese government to stop the violence the United States has called genocide.
(Reuters)