Darfur rebels ask Holland to host peace talks
February 4, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — Darfur rebels demanded the Dutch government to host possible Darfur peace talks with the Sudanese government to end the five years conflict in western Sudan.
Ahmed Abdelshafi, the leader of one of the SLM groups, asked the Netherlands in a letter addressed to its embassy in Khartoum to host peace negotiations with the Sudanese government because it can keep them far from pressures by regional countries.
The Dutch Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Maxim Verhagen, and Development Cooperation, Bert Koenders, arrived in Khartoum Monday evening in an official three-day visit where they expected to meet Sudanese officials and some rebels.
“The Netherlands would be a good option for peace talks,” Ahmed Abdelshafi, told on Monday the Dutch ANP.
“We delivered a letter to the Dutch ambassador in Khartoum in October, asking that peace talks be held in the Netherlands.”
Abdelshafi will meet with Koenders and Verhagen on Tuesday afternoon in Juba. He hopes the ministers will have an answer to his request. “But I cannot anticipate the outcome of the talk. We will see what is on the agenda of the Dutch ministers.”
On Monday a spokesperson for the ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague did not want to comment on the upcoming meeting on Tuesday, reported the Dutch news agency.
There is not much chance that peace talks could be organised quickly. “Peace talks are a possibility. But as long as the government continues to use violence, we will do so as well,” Abdelshafi said.
Nine rebel groups from Darfur, including six different factions of the SLM, concluded a pact in November to cooperate as a concerted rebel movement.
The Dutch ministers will also travel to the region of Darfur, where the ongoing crisis between government and rebel groups has claimed an estimated 200,000 lives over the past five years.
(ST)