US diplomat arrives in Khartoum for talks on Darfur & CPA

By Daniel Van Oudenaren

November 3, 2008 (WASHINGTON) – The top US diplomat for African affairs arrived in Khartoum on Monday for talks on the ongoing conflict in Darfur and implementation of the North-South peace accord.

Frazer was accompanied by Bobby Pittman, the president’s lead official for African affairs at the National Security Council, and Tim Shortley, who leads the State Department’s Sudan bureau.

The delegation was in Juba for two days before arriving in Khartoum on Monday. Frazer left that same evening, wrapping up a tour in which she also met with African leaders in Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Southern Sudan.

The US State Department Deputy Spokesman Robert Wood said at a press briefing on Monday that Frazer “is meeting with Sudanese Government officials, talking about the Comprehensive Peace Agreement as well as Darfur.”

Another US diplomat told Sudan Tribune that Frazer would place particular emphasis on deployment of the UN-African Union hybrid peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID).

The deployment of the Darfur peacekeepers has been forestalled by administrative and logistical obstacles as well as objections from Khartoum on the composition of the force.

Frazer was scheduled to meet with Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Mutrif Sidiq, and she also met with First Vice President Salva Kiir Mayadrit and Foreign Minister Deng Alor.

A source in Khartoum told Sudan Tribune that a private meeting was also held between Frazer and Vice President Ali Osman Taha. Only the US Charge d’Affaires Alberto Fernandez was admitted to the meeting, the source said.

In press statements, Foreign Minister Deng Alor confirmed that when he received Frazer at his office Monday, the top issue discussed was deployment of UNAMID troops.

In recent months the US has stood somewhat aloof from a series of peace initiatives that thus far have failed to bring rebel groups to the negotiating table. In October, a government-led “people’s initiative” was spurned by rebel groups, and a Qatari-led effort has also met with trepidation from the rebels.

Other efforts are led by AU-UN Joint Chief Mediator Djibril Bassole, whose leadership the US endorses. Frazer was scheduled to call Bassole on Monday.

“We have always, from the beginning, supported Bassole,” said a US diplomat who requested not to be identified by name. “That has not changed at all, and certainly that will be Jendayi Frazer’s message to him too, reaffirming that support.”

“We don’t want these competing initiatives, which is why Bassole is there in the first place. Everything should fall under his authority—that’s what he was appointed to do,” added the diplomat.

“From our perspective the most important thing is that Bassole is at the helm,” said the official.

Frazer was also scheduled to call Minni Minawi, a former rebel leader in the Sudan Liberation Movement, who signed the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) with Khartoum several years into the Darfur insurgency, in 2006.

UN experts estimate some 300,000 people have died and 2.5 million driven from their homes. Sudan blames the Western media for exaggerating the conflict and puts the death toll at 10,000.

(ST)