Arab countries step to front stage on Darfur issue
April 30, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Through a multipartite ministerial meeting held in the Libyan capital Tripoli at the weekend, the Arab countries stepped up to the front stage regarding the Darfur issue in the western Sudanese region, local analysts said on Monday.
The meeting called by Libya, was attended by officials from Sudan, Chad, Egypt, Eritrea, Libya, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council as well as the African Union, the European Union, the League of Arab States, and the United Nations.
The meeting was held at a time when Darfur rebel movements were continuously boycotting a resumption of peace talks and Khartoum was under mounting pressures to approve the deployment of UN peacekeepers in Darfur.
Before the Tripoli meeting, all the regional and international meetings regarding the Darfur issue as well as contacts and negotiations between the Sudanese government and Darfur rebel groups had been held in non-Arab countries of the African continent.
Of the two milestones in the Darfur peace process, one ceasefire accord was reached in the Chadian capital N’Djamena on April 8, 2004, and the more significant Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) was signed by the Sudanese government and a main Darfur rebel faction in the Nigerian capital Abuja on May 5, 2006.
Arab countries have played no apparent mediation role in either the crystallization of the N’Djamena ceasefire accord or the Abuja agreement, leaving the non-Arab African countries to perform the sponsorship of the Darfur peace process.
However, the Tripoli meeting signalled a change of the Arab countries from a low profile policy, which they had pursued to avoid a complication of the Darfur situation, to a public intervention due to their cautiousness of what they think the real intentions of the Western countries in Darfur, according to local analysts.
Addressing the opening session on Saturday, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi accused Darfur rebels of seeking to internationalize the conflict. Also he cautioned the international community against too much intervention in the Darfur issue.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit and intelligence chief Omar Suleiman paid a surprise visit on April 23 in Khartoum, where they held talks with Sudanese officials and conveyed a message to Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir from his Egyptian counterpart Hosni Mubarak.
Shortly after the visit, Cairo announced that it would send more than 500 soldiers to participate in the AU peacekeeping forces in Darfur.
The Egyptian soldiers will be the first fighting troops deployed by an Arab country in Darfur, where a number of medical teams and engineering units from the Arab states are working in the 7800-strong AU force.
After the two day conference, diplomats issued a communique, the Tripoli Consensus on Darfur Political Process, and announced their support for the agreement reached by the Sudanese government, the UN and the AU in Addis Ababa on Nov. 16, 2006, on the deployment of an AU-UN hybrid peacekeeping force in Darfur.
It underlined “the urgency of finding a comprehensive and sustainable solution to the Darfur crisis”, warning all parties “that those who obstruct the peace process in Darfur will have to bear the consequences.”
Libyan Foreign Minister Ali Triki told reporters on Sunday that the meeting had sent “a strong message on the issue of keeping peace and security in Darfur”, which should be to carefully read and understood by the Sudanese parties, local media reported.
(Xinhua)