Darfur rebels disappointed by Ban’s visit

September 7, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Darfur rebel leaders on Friday expressed disappointment with the U.N. Secretary General’s visit to Sudan over the last three days and said they had low expectations for peace talks next month.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and the Sudanese government on Thursday set a date and venue for talks between Khartoum and Darfur rebels to push for peace ahead of the deployment of 26,000 peacekeepers in Darfur.

But some rebel leaders said Ban, who visited a Darfur refugee camp during his trip and later met Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, had failed to pressure Sudan to acknowledge key Darfur grievances, which they said would be necessary for the October 27 talks in Libya to succeed.

“(Ban) has not met the expectation of the people of Darfur,” a leader of the Sudan Liberation Army, Ahmed Abdel Shafie, told Reuters by telephone from Uganda.

“The U.N. needs to put pressure on Sudan to stop the settlement that is taking place in Darfur. There are new Arab tribes that the government brought from Niger and Chad and the government is settling them in Darfur to change the demography of the region before elections,” he said.

“I was shocked the UN did not condemn the government for that behavior … We expected Ban to take measures to put pressure on Sudan for this issue,” he added.

Shafie said he favored negotiations as a means to end the conflict, but said little could be accomplished without pressure from the United Nations on Sudan.

The upcoming peace conference would seek to end nearly 4-1/2 years of violence, which has generated one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises and sparked U.S. accusations — dismissed by Sudan — of genocide.

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International experts estimate some 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have fled their homes in Darfur since mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against the government in 2003, accusing it of neglect. Khartoum puts the death toll at 9,000.

The United States had welcomed the plans for the peace talks and said it was ready to support them.

But Shafie said Ban’s contact with the troubled region had been inadequate.

“We hoped that he could have visited more camps in Darfur so he could have witnessed the deteriorating situation that has been created since the government of Sudan deployed its militias and cut off the roads,” he said.

Rebel leader Abdel Wahid Mohamed el-Nur, founder of the Sudan Liberation Movement, living in Paris, said Ban did not consult him or other rebel leaders in planning the negotiations.

“In all negotiations, the parties are supposed to agree on three things: the venue, the time factor and the mediators. I am confused why Mr. Secretary General made these statements without consulting us about any of these things,” Nur told Reuters from Paris.

Nur, who commands few troops in Darfur, but enjoys huge support in the refugee camps, said he would not attend the talks.

“We are not going to participate in these negotiations. Our principles are very clear. We want security for our people first,” he said.

Nur refused to attend preliminary U.N. and AU-mediated talks in Tanzania last month aimed at solidifying a rebel platform.

Last week, the African Union envoy to Darfur, Salim Ahmed Salim, said the peace process needed Nur’s support but his failure to participate would not halt talks to end the conflict.

An AU-mediated 2006 peace deal was signed by only one of three negotiating factions, Nur’s rival Minni Arcua Minnawi. The deal has done little bring stability to the region.

(Reuters)