Eritrea to boost UN efforts to resolve Darfur crisis
March 23, 2007 (ASMARA) — Eritrea has agreed to bolster efforts by the United Nations to breathe life into stalled peace talks aimed at ending the devastating conflict in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, an official statement said.
“The two sides agreed to coordinate their activities and hold joint consultations,” the Eritrean information ministry said in a statement posted on its website late Thursday.
Sudan analysts have said Eritrean involvement is essential to resolving the deadly conflict that erupted in February 2003 when rebels from minority Darfuri tribes took up arms to demand an equal share of national resorces.
This prompted Khartoum and allied militia called Janjaweed to carry out a heavy-handed crackdown, resulting in the death of around 200,000 people and the displacement of around two million others.
Eritrea has opposed the deployment of UN peacekeepers to Darfur, arguing that the move would be tantamount to “neo-colonialism”, instead opting for dialogue to deal with the conflict.
“A political dialogue should take place in which all Sudanese political groups, including community elders and other social forces, need to participate,” Issaias said, according to the statement.
“The Darfur problem cannot be resolved through military threats and economic sanctions… resorting to such steps would aggravate the problem.”
Last November Eritrea offered to mediate between Khartoum and Darfur rebel groups that have refused to sign an African Union-mediated peace deal but was cold-shouldered by the international community.
The Justice and Equality Movement, a faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Sudan Federal Democratic Alliance, last June formed a lose coalition called National Redemption Front based in Asmara.
Eritrean stakes in Sudan politics sharply rose in October last year after it helped mediate a peace deal between Khartoum and rebels in the country’s eastern belt.
(AFP)