US urges rebels participation in Darfur talks without preconditions
July 23, 2007 (WASHINGTON) — The United States on Monday urged all leading personalities of rebel groups involved in the Darfur conflict to attend without preconditions scheduled peace talks in Arusha, Tanzania.
The August 3-5 meeting organized jointly by the African Union and the United Nations was to lay the groundwork with the non-signatory rebels for renewed negotiations with the Sudanese government.
“The United States urges all invited participants to attend the Arusha conference without preconditions, and calls on the rebel participants to include field commanders in their delegations,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
He said that refusal to participate in the meeting “would demonstrate a lack of commitment to solving the crisis in Darfur and would impede the peace process.”
A May 2006 peace deal failed to halt the fighting. Only one rebel group signed on and then promptly split into competing factions.
Efforts to end the four-year conflict through new talks between Khartoum and fragmented rebel groups took a step forward last week at a meeting of key players in Libya.
At the talks in the Tanzanian city, international envoys and rebel groups, which failed to sign up to the 2006 peace deal, will try to fix a date and venue for the start of negotiations between the warring sides.
According to UN estimates, at least 200,000 people have died from the combined effect of war and famine since the conflict in the western Sudanese region of Darfur erupted in February 2003.
The civil war broke out when groups complaining of marginalization by Khartoum launched a rebellion, which was brutally repressed by the Sudanese government and its proxy militia, the Janjaweed.
“Achieving a political settlement is essential to ending the suffering of the people of Darfur,” McCormack said.
The United States also urged all the parties to the Darfur conflict, including rebel groups and the Sudanese government, to cease hostilities and pursue a “peaceful resolution.”
The UN Security Council is set to vote on a draft resolution authorizing the deployment of a joint UN-African Union (AU) force which could allow more than 20,000 military personnel and civilian police into the strife-torn province.
“We look forward to the deployment of the UN/AU hybrid peacekeeping force in Darfur, the cessation of hostilities in the region and a political settlement that leads to a sustainable peace in Sudan,” McCormack said.
(AFP)