Darfur rebels have two more weeks to sign peace
May 15, 2006 (ADDIS ABABA) — The African Union on Monday gave two rebel factions from Sudan’s Darfur region an extra two weeks until the end of May to sign a peace agreement they have so far failed to endorse.
After lengthy AU-sponsored peace talks in Nigeria, only one of the three Darfur rebel factions signed a May 5 accord with Khartoum to end fighting that has killed tens of thousands of people.
“The extension of the signature for those who didn’t sign the agreement will be laid open until the end of May, after which, failure to sign will indicate non-commitment to the peace process and the AU will take a decision,” said Olu Adeniji, chairman of the AU Peace and Security Council.
The two holdouts — the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) led by Abdel Wahed Mohammed al-Nur and the smaller Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) — had been under pressure to sign up to the accord by Monday’s AU meeting in Addis Ababa.
Earlier, Alpha Oumar Konare, chairman of the AU commission, had warned the pan-African body may request UN sanctions against the groups if they took any action likely to undermine the Darfur peace accord.
Adeniji, who is Nigeria’s foreign minister, also said the AU had decided to begin taking steps to hand over its peacekeeping force in Darfur to a UN-led operation as it agreed in principle two months ago. But he did not give a timetable.
“At that time it was a decision in principle. Today, we have reaffirmed that decision beyond principle and decided that steps should commence to transfer the AU mission in Sudan to UN peacekeeping mission,” he told reporters.
The AU said in March that it would transfer its peacekeeping in Sudan to U.N. control by September 30.
Sudan has no objections in principle but wants to discuss details of the handover, he added of Khartoum’s perceived reluctance to receiving UN peacekeepers in Darfur.
“The fact that Sudan has signed the peace agreement indicates that, as envisaged in the peace agreement, AMIS will be taken over by the UN when the transition period is completed.”
(Reuters)