Sudan, rebels abandoning Darfur peace effort – EU
Sept 30, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — The European Union’s envoy to Sudan on Saturday accused the government and rebels of abandoning peace efforts in Darfur and trying to solve the conflict militarily.
EU envoy Pekka Haavisto was speaking as European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and the EU’s top aid official Louis Michel arrived in Khartoum to try to persuade Sudan to agree to the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur.
They were to meet President Omar Hassan al-Bashir later on Saturday and travel to Darfur, in western Sudan, on Sunday.
A peace deal was signed in May by the government and one Darfur rebel group but rejected by other factions.
“Currently both sides of this are trying to solve the conflict militarily,” Haavisto told Reuters. “This is of course as far off the peace agreement as possible. We are giving both sides the message you should act in a disciplined way, you should give peace a chance.”
The EU would try to understand during the visit to Sudan what was behind Khartoum’s repeated refusal to accept a U.N. Security Council resolution allowing the United Nations to take over from African Union peacekeepers in Darfur, Haavisto said.
Sudan’s government has said a U.N. mission would violate its sovereignty and be seen as an attempt to restore colonial rule.
“We have to think seriously what are the real concerns of the government behind this? Is there some particular element in the U.N. resolution … touching their sovereignty?” he said.
PEACEKEEPING EXPERIENCE
Some 200,000 people have died and more than 2.5 million people have been displaced since rebels in Darfur took up arms in 2003, accusing the Khartoum government of neglect.
Sudan is under heavy international pressure to allow a 20,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force to replace 7,000 poorly funded, ill-equipped African Union troops.
Its refusal has prompted some aid officials to suggest that the AU force be allowed to continue its peacekeeping role, backed up by greater support from the United Nations.
But asked about this idea, Haavisto said a U.N. force was necessary because the world body had much more experience at peacekeeping.
The head of the Cairo-based Arab League, Secretary-General Amr Moussa, was also due to travel to Sudan on Monday for talks with Bashir over Darfur, a League official said on Saturday.
Arab diplomats have said that Egypt and the Arab League, of which Sudan is a member, were trying to persuade Khartoum to accept U.N. troops.
Many countries are worried that the conflict in Darfur could eventually threaten other parts of an already unstable region.
On Saturday, Ethiopia accused its traditional foe Eritrea, where some Darfur rebels are based, of destabilising Darfur.
“I have no reason to believe Eritrea has a boundary with Darfur but Eritrea is deeply involved in the destablisation of Darfur … by training and arming Darfur opposition groups,” Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told a news conference in Addis Ababa.
(Reuters)