Sudan offers two-month truce in Darfur
April 23, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — A top Sudanese government official on Monday offered a two-month halt in military operations in strife-torn Darfur to allow for rebel groups to join the peace process.
“The government forces will not conduct military operations in Darfur for the next two months,” presidential adviser Majzub al-Khalifa Ahmed said.
He said the period should be used by rebel groups which did not endorse a May 2006 peace agreement to join negotiations aimed at ending the four-year-old civil conflict and “catch up with the peace march”.
Khalifa was speaking at a ceremony to mark the launch of the Darfur Transitional Regional Authority (DTRA), a body created as part of the implementation of the moribund peace deal.
The agreement reached in May 2006 in Abuja was signed by the government and only one of three negotiating rebel factions, failing to make any impact. Rebel splinter groups have since flourished and violence spiralled.
Observers have questioned the viability of such a peace agreement and called for further international action, but Khalifa insisted the signatories should press ahead with its implementation.
The Abuja signatories “are capable of implementing the agreement and achieving peace in Darfur,” the official said. “The inauguration of the regional authority constitutes a new stage in the history of the Sudan.”
Khartoum “trusts that the authority will work hard towards implementing the Abuja agreement by building villages, helping IDPs (internally displaced people) return home and carrying out development projects, building roads and providing electricity”, Ahmed said.
The ceremony was also attended by Minni Minnawi, who heads the faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement which signed the Abuja agreement and was consequently appointed as special presidential adviser.
“The authority will as of today begin exercising all its security, economic, political and humanitarian duties in addition to extending the basic services to the people of Darfur,” said Minnawi, who is also DTRA chairman.
Violence has continued to rage in Darfur in recent weeks, with tribal clashes flaring and violence between government forces and rebels threatening to spill over into neighbouring countries.
African Union peacekeepers have also suffered their worst month since being deployed in 2004, with eight casualties.
The international community is increasing the pressure on Khartoum to accept a United Nations plan which would result in the deployment of a robust UN peacekeeping force to prop up the embattled African contingent.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit and his country’s intelligence chief Omar Suleiman discussed Darfur with Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir on Monday, the official SUNA news agency said.
The meeting focused on coordination between the two countries on “actions to undertake” to resolve the crisis, it said.
While Sudan has accepted the second phase of a proposed UN plan to provide additional manpower for the beleaguered African Union peacekeepers, the United States and Britain are still threatening to impose more sanctions.
Egypt has publicly opposed sanctions and lashed out at Western powers over its aggressive stance towards Sudan.
Khartoum has yet to agree to the third and final phase of the UN plan which would envision some 20,000 UN peacekeepers supporting the African force.
(AFP)