Paris meeting must press Darfur rebels to talk-China
June 23, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — China said on Saturday a Paris meeting of key nations on Darfur should pressure rebels who reject a peace deal to come aboard the negotiation process.
China’s special envoy Liu Guijin, speaking after meeting President Omar Hassan al-Bashir in Khartoum, also said there were no more obstacles to sending a joint African Union-U.N. peacekeeping operation to Darfur.
“The (Paris) conference should be a major venue to persuade the non-signatories of the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) to come to the negotiating table,” Liu said.
Only one of the three rebel factions involved in negotiations last year signed the DPA. Since the deal the mostly non-Arab insurgents have splintered into dozens of groups.
The breakdown of law and order in Darfur has sparked a wave of attacks and looting of aid convoys working in the world’s largest humanitarian operation, which is trying to help 2.5 million people driven from their homes.
Even AU peacekeepers have come under attack, with at least 20 personnel killed since the cash-strapped operation began in 2004. International experts estimate 200,000 have died in four years of conflict in Darfur. Khartoum puts the death toll at 9,000.
It took months of intense diplomacy to garner Khartoum’s support for the joint operation, drawn up by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Sudan says most troops will be African and the commander is a Nigerian.
“We think that there are no major obstacles on the way of implementing the Annan plan,” Liu said. “The international community should work together closely with the Sudanese government side for the speedy implementation of the Annan plan.”
Sudan has expressed reservations about Monday’s Paris meeting, which France says will bring together an “enlarged contact group” including the United States, Egypt and China. Khartoum says it will not move the political process forward.
China agreed, saying more pressure was needed from the key countries to get fractious rebels at the negotiating table.
“We think that equal importance should be attached to the political process in Darfur,” said Liu. “The international community should work together to push all the non-signatories to the DPA to the negotiating table.”
Darfur rebels accuse Khartoum of neglecting the remote arid region.
(Reuters)