Darfur rebels pessimistic despite UK, US intervention
May 2, 2006 (ABUJA) — Top U.S. and British diplomats joined Darfur peace talks Tuesday as mediators tried to get rebels and the Sudanese government to strike a deal before a midnight deadline. A rebel delegate was pessimistic, and the U.N. reported escalating attacks in the region.
Robert B. Zoellick, No. 2 in the U.S. State Department, and Britain’s International Development Secretary Hilary Benn shuttled among the groups, listening to complaints and making suggestions for compromise, according to a member of the U.S. delegation.
“There’s no solution yet,” said Calfaddin Aroun of the Sudanese Liberation Movement, suggesting his side could leave without an agreement.
The African Union had originally set a Sunday deadline, but extended the talks by 48 hours when the rebels rejected an AU draft agreement. AU officials said Tuesday there may be another two-day extension if progress warranted it.
Bush called Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Monday night, the official Sudan News Agency reported Tuesday, underlining Washington’s growing preoccupation with one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
Bush has called government-backed attacks on civilians in Darfur genocide. The leaders discussed “the question of Darfur and the importance of bringing peace,” the agency reported.
The report could not immediately be confirmed with the White House.
Government officials in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, were taking the line Tuesday that there was nothing more for their side to do. The government has announced its acceptance of the draft peace agreement, but the rebels have so far rejected it, saying their demands on autonomy and representation have not been met.
The three-year conflict has led to the deaths of at least 180,000 people and the displacement of more than 2 million. The AU-mediated peace talks in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, have dragged on for two years, with mediators repeatedly expressing frustration at the warring parties’ unwillingness to compromise and at their inability or unwillingness to respect a cease-fire.
Ted Chaiban, who heads Sudan operations for the U.N. Children’s Fund, said attacks were escalating in several areas in Darfur. Among the hardest hit areas was rebel-held Gereida, near the South Darfur capital of Nyala, which UNICEF said has seen major Arab militia attacks that have forced 200,000 people from their homes in the last three months alone.
Chaiban said the various factions were likely expecting a treaty in Abuja and were jockeying to hold the most territory before a new cease-fire was declared.
“It is important that the agreement be signed so that this kind of jockeying … would cease,” Chaiban said in a telephone interview.
The U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday four Chadian civilians were killed and five were wounded a day earlier near a Darfur refugee camp in Chad by a group of 150 armed men. The attackers were described by locals as belonging to the Arab militia the Sudanese government is accused of unleashing on Darfur civilians in response to the rebellion.
UNHCR said it was gravely concerned by a growing number of such attacks near the camp, one of a dozen in eastern Chad, home to some 200,000 Sudanese refugees from Darfur.
Darfur has been a staging ground for Chadian rebels, who have risen up against the government there. Sudan accuses Chad of supporting Darfur rebels. The violence threatens to escalate: Osama bin Laden last week urged his followers to go to Sudan to fight a proposed U.N. presence.
The Sudanese government has said it may accept U.N. peacekeepers to help resolve the crisis in Darfur once an agreement is signed.
The displaced face other challenges. Monday marked the first day of the cash-strapped World Food Program’s cut in food rations by half for Darfur villagers forced to flee their homes because of the fighting.
Chaiban said UNICEF had requested US$89 million (about euro71 million)in funding for this year and so far received only US$15 million (about euro12 million) from international donors, forcing cuts in educational, vaccination and other programs, Chaiban said.
“This is the third year of a complex emergency in which a lot of resources have gone. There is a certain amount of donor fatigue,” Chaiban said, adding he hoped the interest fanned by the possibility of a peace deal and recent marches in the United States would prompt donors to again turn their attention to Darfur.
Zoellick was dispatched to the peace talks after thousands of people rallied over the weekend in the United States calling for an end to violence and deprivation in Darfur.
Two main rebel groups were fighting the government for more control over an impoverished region they accuse the central government of neglecting, though they also have battled each other for territory in Darfur and at least one has developed its own internal factions.
The Justice and Equality Movement is closely linked to Islamic fundamentalists.
The Sudan Liberation Movement — which started fighting for more governing autonomy for Darfur in February 2003 — split in November and both factions have sent representatives to the talks.
Decades of low-level tribal clashes over land and water in Darfur erupted into large-scale violence in early 2003, when the rebels took up arms. The central government is accused of responding by unleashing Arab tribal militias known as Janjaweed to murder and rape civilians and lay waste to villages. Sudan denies backing the Janjaweed.
(ST/AP)