U.S. envoy calls for cease-fire in western Sudan
By ANDREW ENGLAND Associated Press Writer
NAIVASHA, Kenya, Jan 16, 2004 (AP) — A U.S. envoy on Friday called for an end to fighting in western Sudan and asked the rebels and the government to allow aid agencies access to the 600,000 people who have fled their homes.
Former Sen. John Danforth said Sudanese officials and the leaders of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army “should stop the fighting and they should enter into negotiations.” The rebels have called for greater representation for impoverished Darfur province and have been fighting government troops and allied militia since February.
Danforth called for a cease-fire in Darfur after trying to speed up peace talks between government officials and rebels from the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, which has been leading a 20-year insurgency in southern Sudan.
The two sides have been meeting in the Kenyan town of Naivasha, 100 kilometers (60 miles) northwest of Nairobi, trying to resolve two outstanding issues in a final deal to end that conflict, in which 2 million people have perished, mainly through war-induced famine.
Earlier this month, the two sides agreed on how to share the country’s wealth, including oil revenue from Africa’s largest nation. But they have yet to reach agreements on the administration of three disputed areas in central Sudan and power-sharing, which would define the rebels’ representation in a transitional administration and whether Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, would be governed by Islamic law.
Danforth, who was appointed in September 2001, said the two remaining issues “seem to be in reach” and said both sides were committed to reaching a deal.
But he said a peace agreement between the government and the southern rebels would not solve problems in Darfur, an impoverished region that borders Chad, because it involves a different set of rebels.
The medical aid agency Medecins sans Frontieres complained Thursday about how government troops have treated 10,000 of the refugees in Darfur, forcing them into camps near the fighting and denying them access to food, water or medical treatment outside the new camps.
“The new locations are in an areas where access by humanitarian organizations is difficult because of insecurity,” the agency said in a statement. “In addition, little has been done to accommodate those who are being forcibly relocated to these sites.”
Sudanese officials were not immediately available for comment on the complaints.