Darfur peace talks face “tremendous challenge” – US
September 26, 2007 (KHARTOUM) – Darfur peace talks will be a “tremendous challenge” requiring all sides to make compromises to settle the conflict in Sudan’s remote west, the top U.S. diplomat in Sudan said on Wednesday.
Talks are due to start in Libya on October 27 to end the violence Washington calls genocide. International experts estimate 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million driven from their homes since mostly non-Arabs took up arms in early 2003 accusing Khartoum of neglect.
Khartoum rejects the term and blames the West for exaggerating the fighting, putting the death toll at 9,000.
Fernandez said to make the talks successful rebels had to unify and agree on a clear negotiating position and the government had to be flexible.
“It’s a tremendous challenge,” he told Reuters. “If one is sincere about peace in Darfur then a lot of people have to compromise.”
Since a May 2006 peace deal, signed by only one of three negotiating insurgent movements, the rebels have split into more than a dozen factions.
Fernandez said the U.N. and African Union mediators needed to go into the talks with “eyes wide open” and be aware of the shortcomings of last year’s deal.
“To have an agreement that is not inclusive risks a flawed and failed agreement,” he said.
He said the United States was concerned by the slow progress in getting a joint U.N.-AU peacekeeping force on the ground, despite Khartoum’s agreement to the 26,000-strong mission.
“The mechanics of it, the implementation and the speed of implementation — those are all issues of concern,” he said.
U.N. officials have said the AU has rejected non-African battalions for the force, preferring all African troops, a move the rebels have criticised.
The force deployment has also been slowed by a lack of commitments from western countries for technical and logistical support units.
Fernandez said Natsios will also address the north-south peace deal signed in January 2005, which he said is at a turning point.
“We are at a juncture where things could improve or they could further deteriorate,” he said.
“The level of public tension has risen measurably over the past few weeks and that’s a very worrying issue of great concern to us,” he added.
A military standoff in South Kordofan and raids by northern police on their southern junior coalition partners’ offices in Khartoum prompted South Sudan President Salva Kiir to say a return to war was possible.
Fernandez said an agreement on demarcating the borders of Abyei, a central, disputed oil-rich region, would build confidence between the two sides.
“A solution to Abyei, a compromise, would go a very long way in solving a lot of the problems,” he added.
The north-south civil war, Africa’s longest, claimed 2 million lives and drove at least 4 million from their homes.
(Reuters)