Darfur peace talks may open in October – AU envoy
August 22, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Talks between the Sudanese government and rebel factions to try to end the four-year conflict in Darfur could start in October, the African Union’s special envoy for Sudan said on Wednesday.
“We are working on the basis that the talks will take place in early October,” Salim Ahmed Salim told reporters after a meeting with Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol.
He said the exact date would be set by UN chief Ban Ki-moon, who is due to visit Sudan next month, and the head of the African Union Commission Alpha Omar Konare.
Representatives of Darfur’s many rebel groups gathered earlier this month in the Tanzanian town of Arusha for UN- and AU-sponsored talks aimed at unifying their stance ahead of final peace negotiations with Khartoum.
According to UN estimates, at least 200,000 people have been killed and more than two million displaced by the combined effect of war and famine since the civil conflict erupted in Darfur four-and-a-half years ago.
A peace deal was signed once with the Sudanese government in Abuja in May 2006, but only one out of three negotiating factions endorsed the agreement, sparking deep divisions among rebels and a new surge in violence.
Sudanese government spokesman Ali al-Sadek said Khartoum was ready to start negotiations at any time.
“We don’t have any problems in discussing the concerns of rebel groups as long as the Abuja accord is the reference point for negotiations,” he added.
However, a leading rebel faction said earlier Wednesday it was reassessing its commitment to the latest peace initiative because of recent raids by Sudanese government forces.
“Our commitment in Arusha was that we endorsed the AU-UN roadmap to jumpstart the political process. Given what the government of Sudan is doing on the ground, we are re-assessing it,” said Nouri Abdalla, a spokesman for the Sudan Liberation Movement.
“If the government of Sudan does not stop its policy of terrorising civilians, there can be no political process,” he added.
Ban, meanwhile, is expected in Sudan in early September in a bid to advance the deployment of a hybrid UN-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur after it finally won the backing of the government in Khartoum.
The UN Security Council decided on July 31 to set up the joint force of 26,000 men to replace an under-equipped and under-funded African Union contingent although the full deployment is not envisaged before mid-2008.
(AFP)