UN, AU envoys in Sudan to revive Darfur peace talks

Feb 12, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Envoys from the United Nations and African Union (AU) arrived in Khartoum on Monday in a bid to revive peace talks in the troubled western Sudanese region of Darfur.

Jan Eliasson of the UN and Salim Ahmed Salim of the AU are due to meet officials in Khartoum before heading to Darfur in a bid to win over rebel groups which did not sign a May 2006 peace deal with the government.

“We will endeavour to broaden the accord to include the non-signatories,” Salim told reporters on his arrival.

Only the mainstream faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) led by Minni Minnawi signed last year’s agreement in the Nigerian capital Abuja.

Two other factions involved in the talks refused and the conflict has raged on amid mounting splits among the rebels.

Salim expressed optimism over the latest peace bid despite the divisions among the rebels.

On January 12, Minnawi’s former spokesman Hussein Mahjoub split off from the SLM to form the Great Sudan Liberation Movement because of what he described as the failure of the Abuja agreement.

Some 7,000 AU military observers are stationed in Darfur to try to oversee implementation of the agreement but the under-equipped and cash-strapped force has struggled to patrol a region the size of France.

The UN Security Council called on the government of President Omar al-Beshir last July to accept the deployment of 20,000 UN peacekeepers in Darfur to replace the overstretched AU force.

But Beshir has repeatedly rejected the presence of foreign troops, accusing the international community of wanting to invade his country and plunder its resources.

In November, the United Nations, the AU and Sudan reached a compromise agreement providing for a mixed AU-UN peacekeeping force.

So far only the first phase of the deployment involving a small number of UN technical experts has been implemented and there is widespread scepticism about Beshir’s willingness to follow through with the rest.

On Wednesday, the US announced that President George W. Bush had approved plans for wide-ranging financial and other sanctions against Sudan if Khartoum does not follow through on a deal to deploy UN-led peacekeepers.

The Bush sanctions package is part of a three-tiered “Plan B” of coercive steps that Washington has repeatedly threatened to launch if Beshir’s Arab-led government does not halt a campaign of repression unleashed to end the rebellion in Darfur.

Under the plan, slammed by Khartoum as “unjustifiable”, the US Treasury would block US commercial bank transactions connected to the Sudan government, including those involving oil revenues.

The aim would be to discourage foreign governments and companies from doing business with Sudan, which has a largely dollar-based economy.

The package would also put pressure on Darfur rebel leaders who have refused to participate in peace talks with the government.

The conflict in Darfur began when ethnic minority rebels rose up against the Khartoum regime in February 2003, drawing a scorched earth response from government troops and Arab militia allies.

At least 200,000 people have died from the combined effect of war and famine, while well over two million more have fled their homes, according to UN officials. Other sources put the death toll far higher.

(AFP)