3 Sudanese rebel groups agree to talks

By CHRIS TOMLINSON Associated Press Writer

NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 05, 2004 (AP) — Three small Sudanese rebel groups said Thursday they were ready to hold peace talks with the government to end months of fighting that has sent more than 600,000 people fleeing in southwestern Sudan.

In a joint statement, the Sudanese Liberation Movement, the Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Federal Democratic Alliance said they would participate in two days of talks at the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue in Geneva, beginning Feb. 14.

“The seriousness and the scale of the humanitarian situation can no longer be ignored,” the statement said.

Government officials were not immediately available for comment on the proposed talks.

While peace talks have reached their final stages to end the 21-year civil war between the Sudanese government and rebels in the south, the smaller insurgency in Darfur region, which borders Chad, has worsened in recent months after it erupted a year ago.

The Darfur rebels and refugees accuse the government in Khartoum of deliberately bombing villages in Darfur and using militias to loot towns and villages.

In a statement broadcast on state-run Sudan Radio, Lt. Gen. Muhammed Bashir Suleyman, the army spokesman, denied foreign media accounts and Amnesty International reports that government aircraft bombed civilian targets.

An Associated Press journalist witnessed several bombing raids on villages in Darfur, and refugees who fled to neighboring Chad repeatedly described attacks and bombings by government forces.

Before the rebel statement was released, Suleyman also said the government would seek a negotiated end to the fighting in southwestern Sudan.