AU, UK, US prepare new Darfur peace proposal
May 3, 2006 (ABUJA) — African Union mediators joined by senior U.S. and British officials are preparing a substantially changed Darfur peace proposal after rebels rejected the original draft, said two Sudanese close to the negotiations who saw the new document Wednesday.
The two Sudanese, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the new proposal was not yet official, said it was aimed at meeting rebel demands for a greater share of power and wealth.
The Sudanese government had accepted the original draft and it was not immediately clear how it would respond to any changes.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick and British Cabinet member Hilary Benn, who have joined efforts to hammer out an agreement, met Wednesday morning with African Union officials to finalize the new proposal, said the two Sudanese who had seen it.
Denis Sassou-Nguesso, the president of Republic of Congo and current head of the 53-nation AU, and other African leaders were expected in Nigeria later Wednesday to help push for a solution to a crisis that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.
Earlier, Jaffer Monro, spokesman for the main Sudan Liberation Movement, had said that if the initial proposal was not significantly changed, the rebels would press for the United Nations or another body to take over the peace talks from the African Union.
The African Union has overseen the talks for two years, and its mediators have often expressed frustration at the seeming unwillingness of either side to compromise or adhere to a cease-fire declared in April 2004.
Monro was not immediately available for comment on the possibility the proposed agreement would be changed to meet rebel concerns.
African Union mediators had set a Sunday deadline for the two sides to accept the original draft, but extended that twice after meeting rebel objections. The latest deadline is midnight Thursday.
Asked late Tuesday what would happen if there is no agreement by Thursday, chief African Union mediator Salim Ahmed Salim said: “There will be continued killing, continued suffering, and all the destruction that has been going on.”
Zoellick was dispatched to the session after thousands of people rallied over the weekend in the United States calling for an end to violence and deprivation in Darfur.
President Bush, who has described government-backed attacks on civilians in Darfur as genocide, called Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Monday night about the importance of peace in the region.
During the call, Bush urged al-Bashir to send his Vice President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha, who left Abuja on Monday, back to the peace talks, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. The president told al-Bashir to accept a U.N. Darfur peacekeeping mission backed by NATO logistics and training.
Two main rebel groups both accuse the central government of neglecting impoverished Darfur, though they also have battled each other for territory and at least one has developed its own internal factions.
Decades of low-level tribal clashes over land and water in Darfur erupted into large-scale violence in early 2003. The central government is accused of responding by unleashing Arab tribal militias known as Janjaweed upon civilians. Sudan denies backing the Janjaweed.
Darfur has been a staging ground for Chadian rebels, and 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.
(ST/AP)