Eritrea says US obstructs Darfur’s peace mediation

Dec 23, 2006 (ASMARA) — Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki has met top Sudanese officials in the port city of Massawa to discuss how to resolve the Darfur crisis, as Asmar said US heinedred its Darfur’s mediation.

“Both sides exchanged views on ways of taking measures towards holding dialogue among the Sudanese government and Darfur opposition parties,” the Eritrean Information Ministry’s Web site said late on Friday.

While Eritrea accused the US of obstructing its efforts for peace in Darfur, stressing that it would pursue efforts for the achievement of peace in the Sudan.

In a statement to the official SUNA, Al-Amin Mohamed Saeed, the Secretary General of the ruling People’s Front for Democracy and Justice, said that the failure of the 20 December meeting between the Sudanese government and Darfur rebels is caused by foreign interventions. He further charged some countries among which the USA of hindering the talks.

Darfur holdout rebel groups showed reserves towards the Eritrean mediation because it excludes the international community and the African Union from the talks.

Eritrea offered last month to mediate talks between Khartoum and Darfur rebels who did not endorse an African Union (AU)-backed peace deal signed in Abuja this year.

Many of the Darfur rebels, who did not sign the Abuja agreement, have offices in Asmara but none attended the meeting in Massawa, sources close to the rebels said.

In a sign of warming relations between the two neighbours, Eritrea mediated a peace deal in Asmara between eastern Sudanese rebels and Khartoum in October.

Outgoing U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he expected Sudan’s consent soon for a joint U.N.-AU peacekeeping force to help quell violence in Darfur.

At least 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced since early 2003 in fighting between rebel groups and the government aided by brutal militias.

(ST/Reuters)