Uncompromising rebels threaten Darfur peace deal
May 1, 2006 (ABUJA) — Chances of a peace agreement for Sudan’s Darfur region looked slim on Monday despite a 48-hour extension to negotiations, observers said, citing rebel inflexibility.
Mediators from the African Union (AU) agreed in the early hours after a deadline expired to give the government of Sudan and two rebel groups until midnight on Tuesday to agree on a proposed peace plan, the result of two years of talks.
The government has said it will accept the 85-page draft agreement, but the rebels say they will not sign unless several demands on security, power-sharing and wealth-sharing are met. Mediators say they have refused to make any compromises.
“There’s an outside chance that the two SLA factions will be pressured into signing … but it’s far from certain,” said one diplomat who is closely involved in the talks.
He was referring to the divided Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA). The other group, the Justice and Equality Movement, is the most inflexible according to observers.
“Some of (the rebels), though not all, are starting to realise they’re in a corner,” said the diplomat, adding that the departure of Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha may have belatedly jolted the rebels into a sense of urgency.
Taha left the Nigerian capital Abuja, venue of the talks, early on Monday after what diplomats described as disastrous meetings with rebel leaders. His presence over the past three weeks had raised hopes of a deal.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the rebels to “redouble their efforts and to come to an agreement without delay, so that the suffering and destruction in Darfur can be brought to an end.” Millions in Darfur depend on humanitarian aid to survive, the U.N. says.
U.S. diplomats are now struggling to engineer a last-ditch deal whereby the sides would trade concessions on two crucial security issues, which could unlock the wider negotiations.
SECURITY TRADE-OFF
Under a U.S. proposal, the government would get amendments to provisions on the disarmament of its allied militias while in exchange the rebels would get a detailed plan for integration of some of its fighters into the Sudanese security forces.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick is to arrive in Abuja on Tuesday to pressure the parties to sign up to the initiative. Washington labels the violence in Darfur “genocide”.
“You have to pick your spots when it is the right time to engage on the ground personally. And Deputy Secretary Zoellick decided that this was the right moment to try to get this over the goal line,” said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.
The rebels took up arms in early 2003 in ethnically mixed Darfur, an arid region the size of France, over what they saw as neglect by the Arab-dominated central government.
Khartoum used militias drawn from Arab tribes to crush the rebellion. Fighting has killed tens of thousands while a campaign of arson, looting and rape has driven more than 2 million into refugee camps in Darfur and neighbouring Chad.
Observers say the rebels risk squandering international sympathy while the government, widely portrayed as the villain in Darfur, has played its diplomatic cards just right.
By showing willingness to sign despite its own misgivings about the text, Khartoum has given the international community what it wants while making the rebels look like peace-spoilers.
The rebels say this is unfair because the draft favours the government and therefore it is easy for Khartoum to accept, while on the ground it continues to violate a 2004 ceasefire.
“The government is not serious about making peace,” said Abduljabbar Dosa, chief mediator of the SLA.
But the AU, with 7,000 peacekeepers in Darfur, says all sides have frequently violated the ceasefire. Aid groups say the violence prevents them helping tens of thousands of refugees.
The AU says failure to reach agreement in Abuja would mean further bloodshed and suffering for the people of Darfur.
(Reuters)