Darfur rebels agree position for talks with Sudan
August 6, 2007 (ARUSHA) — Darfur rebel factions meeting in Tanzania have reached a common negotiating position and want final peace talks with the Sudanese government within months, international mediators said on Monday.
“They … recommended that final talks should be held between two to three months from now,” the United Nations’ special envoy to Darfur, Jan Eliasson, said.
The rebel factions had been meeting at a luxury resort in the north Tanzanian town of Arusha to try and bury past differences over demands for the leadership and future of the vast western region of Sudan.
Speaking on behalf of the United Nations and African Union, Eliasson said the various groups had reached “a common platform” for talks with the government, encompassing power- and wealth-sharing, security, land and humanitarian issues.
There was no immediate reaction from Khartoum, but the government has said it was ready to talk to the rebels at any time. Khartoum has said it does not want to reopen the files agreed at a May 2006 peace deal, but has offered to allow some additions.
International experts estimate 200,000 people have died in the four-year conflict since mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing central government of neglecting Darfur. Khartoum mobilised mostly Arab militias to quell the revolt.
Since a peace deal signed last year by only one rebel faction, insurgents have split into more than a dozen groups.
The various rebel political leaders and field commanders meeting in Tanzania also pledged to remain open to rebel leaders who had not attended the negotiations, Eliasson said.
The absence of some influential rebel leaders had raised doubts over the chances of the talks succeeding.
REBELS “OPEN” TO ABSENTEES
Khartoum accused Paris of failing to encourage one prominent leader living in France — Abdel Wahed Mohamed el-Nur — to attend. He has only a few troops at his back, but commands huge support among 2.5 million Darfuris forced into refugee camps.
Analysts say his blessing is essential to the success of any peace deal. He is refusing to attend talks until an oil-for-food programme and no-fly zone are implemented in Darfur.
The large Sudan Liberation Army-Unity faction also declined to participate in the Arusha talks in protest at the fact its humanitarian coordinator, Suleiman Jamous, is virtually imprisoned in a U.N. hospital near Darfur.
The rebels, Eliasson said, “decided to keep open the possibility for those who were invited but did not participate in the Arusha consultations to join their common platform, in order to have an inclusive representation”.
The U.N. envoy said rebel-government talks could be held in any of the regional nations trying to help mediate the conflict “or in any other country that the mediation considers suitable”.
The United Nations and AU would discuss the venue and exact timing with Sudan, he said.
Eliasson said the rebels in Arusha had also “reiterated their readiness to respect a complete cessation of hostilities provided that all other parties make similar commitments”.
They would also guarantee access for aid agencies, refrain from attacking AU peacekeepers, and cooperate with a planned 26,000-strong AU-U.N. peacekeeping force approved by the Security Council in New York last week.
An official from the SLA led by Minni Arcua Minnawi said on Monday that unknown armed men had attacked some of Minnawi’s forces in Darfur, killing four and injuring five.
“This was yesterday. They were in the hills near the road and fired and then ran,” said Mohamed Bashir in Khartoum. The attack was in North Darfur as Minnawi’s troops were moving towards the state capital el-Fasher.
The injured were in el-Fasher hospital and troops had been sent to find the attackers.
(Reuters)