Rebel groups still can join Darfur peace process – UN

November 5, 2007 (UNITED NATIONS) — United Nations Said that the door is open for Darfur rebel groups to join the peace process that started last week in Libya, urging them to quickly reunite their positions.

“The door remains open for those who wish to join the process,” a spokesperson for the UN-AU mediation team said today told reporters at UN Headquarters in New York after returning from Sirte, where UN and AU envoys are still conducting meetings with many of the participating groups.

Ahmad Fawzi added that some rebel groups were indicating they were now prepared to attend the peace process aimed at ending the four-year conflict in western Sudan. However he stressed that it was now time for the rebels to “get their act together” and determine who will represent them in the third phase as well as their common positions.

He said last week talks in Sirte, Libya, between the Sudanese Government, representatives of eight rebel groups, civil society, regional countries and the international community were just the first phase of a three-part process to try to quell the violence and suffering engulfing Darfur.

He said that while it was disappointing that so many of Darfur rebel groups did not participate in the Sirte talks, they now had the second phase of the peace process — a series of planned consultations and workshops with and among the rebels — to work out a unified position on the major issues in dispute.

The third phase, in which full talks are supposed to take place in Sirte, is slated to begin in early December.

UN and AU envoys are also travelling now to Juba in southern Sudan, where some of the rebel groups are based, for further consultations, before heading on to El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, for more diplomatic efforts.

Fawzi acknowledged that many of the key issues are complex, including questions of wealth-sharing, governance and security arrangements for Darfur, where a joint UN-AU peacekeeping force (UNAMID) is slated to begin full operations in January. That force is expected to have as many as 25,000 troops and police officers.

“Time is on nobody’s side. People are suffering in the camps,” he said, referring to some of the estimated 2.2 million Darfurians who have had to flee their homes since rebels began fighting Government forces and allied militia known as the Janjaweed in 2003. At least another 200,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

(ST)