Darfur rebels happy with Darfur concessions – Negotiator
May 4, 2006 (ABUJA) — The latest Darfur peace proposal drafted with U.S. help meets key rebel demands and could open the way to a deal, a rebel negotiator said Thursday.
The negotiator, speaking on condition of anonymity because the parties had been asked not to reveal details of the proposal, said it called for thousands of rebels to be integrated into Sudanese security forces. Sudanese government officials were not immediately available for comment.
The talks in the Nigerian capital are aimed at resolving a crisis in Darfur, in western Sudan, that has claimed at least 180,000 lives and forced more than 2 million people to flee their homes.
The rebel negotiator said the latest draft called for a minimum of 4,000 rebels to be integrated into Sudan’s armed forces and another 1,000 into the police force. In addition, 3,000 rebels would be given training and education to prepare for civilian life.
The negotiator said the concessions from the Sudanese government make agreement possible, though the rebels remained concerned about security arrangements. The agreement as it stands calls for a protection force for civilians in the immediate aftermath of the three-year-old war, but does not spell out its composition. The rebels want a joint protection force composed of rebels and government, African Union and U.N. forces.
Rebels had over the weekend rejected an initial peace proposal drafted by African Union mediators who have been working with the warring parties for two years. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick, British Cabinet member Hilary Benn and other international envoys stepped in to try to work out a compromise, with a Thursday midnight deadline.
Since the Westerners’ arrival, the Sudanese government has shown flexibility, though it had accepted the initial AU draft. Sudanese government spokesman Abdulrahman Zuma said Wednesday his government was considering agreeing to faster disarmament of Arab militias in Darfur and accepting more rebels into its security forces.
“Through this so-called American initiative, it seems that the government is going to make some concessions, especially about reintegration and disarmament,” Zuma told the Associated Press Wednesday.
The initial draft called for disarmament of the Arab militias known as Janjaweed, but did not specify how quickly that would accomplished, nor specify how many rebels would be absorbed into national security forces.
No details were available on the timetable for Janjaweed disarmament or on the original numbers being considered for integration.
Two Sudanese rebels close to the negotiations had also said the new draft addressed their demands for greater power and wealth sharing. The rebels spoke on condition of anonymity because the new proposal was not official.
Zuma said the power and wealth sharing issues already had been settled and were not open to discussion.
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. African Union mediators have often over the last two years expressed frustration at the seeming unwillingness of either side to compromise or adhere to a cease-fire declared in April, 2004.
African Union spokesman Nouredine Mezni said African mediators had made “titanic efforts” to produce the draft proposal and that any changes would have to be negotiated by other parties.
In Washington Wednesday, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters that Zoellick, African leaders and others were not applying “pressure in the negative sense but in the positive sense of helping them come to an agreement, bridge their differences, offer suggestions. But ultimately, they (the warring parties) are the ones that are going to have come to an agreement.”
While the rebels may embrace the United States as an alternative to the African Union, the U.S. relationship with Khartoum is complicated.
On Friday, Washington counted Sudan among six state sponsors of terror, even while it credited Khartoum with taking significant steps to cooperate in the global war on terror.
The U.N. Security Council a year ago authorized seizure of assets and a travel ban on individuals defying peace efforts or violating human rights law in Darfur. Those sanctions were imposed for the first time last week against a commander of the Sudanese air force, a Janjaweed militia leader and two rebel commanders.
Stakes in the conflict have increased with oil exploration in Darfur. China, whose single largest source of foreign crude is Sudan, initially opposed and then abstained from the U.S.-backed resolution imposing sanctions.
Decades of low-level tribal clashes over land and water in Darfur erupted into large-scale violence in early 2003, with rebels accusing the central government of neglecting the region. The central government is accused of responding by unleashing Arab militias known as Janjaweed upon civilians. Sudan denies backing the Janjaweed.
Darfur has become a staging ground for Chadian rebels, who have risen up against the government there, and Sudan accuses Chad of supporting Darfur rebels. The violence threatens to escalate since Osama bin Laden last week urged his followers to go to Sudan to fight a proposed U.N. force to replace ineffective African peacekeepers.
Thousands of Americans protested over the weekend in the United States to demand an end to the slaughter in Darfur.
As the talks progressed, U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland was preparing to go to Darfur. Last month, the Sudanese government barred Egeland from visiting Darfur and the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. But the U.N. envoy said in an interview Wednesday that the government has now invited him and he will visit this weekend.
He said his trip has three objectives: to improve security for relief workers and the people they are trying to help, to try to get more cooperation from the government and rebels for humanitarian work, and to appeal for immediate funding. Cash-strapped aid agencies are drastically cutting services for more than 2 million people forced from their homes by the fighting.
(ST/AP)