U.S.: Sudanese government and southern rebels need to reach a peace deal so talks on western Sudan may gain momentum

NAIROBI, April 7, 2004 (AP) — Sudanese officials and the country’s main rebel group fighting a 21-year war in southern Sudan need to reach a peace deal soon so that negotiations on the conflict in western Sudan may gain momentum, a senior U.S. official said.

The U.S. considered recalling its mediators at talks in Kenya between Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha and John Garang, the leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, because they’d been at the negotiating table for six months and unrelated fighting in Darfur has reached a critical stage, said Charles Snyder, the acting U.S. Assistant Secretary for African Affairs.

“I originally intended to take back with me my entire delegation to begin to take a serious look at where we were going in Sudan given what’s going in Darfur, the serious violence and ethnic cleansing that’s going on,” Snyder said.

However, Taha and Garang are confident of concluding a deal by the weekend, Snyder said.

“We protested strongly to them and pointed out the need to close this deal,” he added.

U.S. President George W. Bush said Wednesday that the Sudanese government must stop militias in the Darfur region of western Sudan from committing atrocities against the local population and called on the government to provide unrestricted access to humanitarian aid agencies.

“The government of Sudan must not remain complicit in the brutalization of Darfur,” Bush said in a statement.

In Chad on Tuesday, a separate Sudanese government delegation began direct talks with rebels fighting the yearlong insurgency in western Sudan for the first time since the talks mediated by Chad and the African Union began March 31.

Thousands of people have been killed and more than 800,000 others forced to flee their homes in Darfur, an impoverished region that borders Chad since rebels took up arms in February 2003 to fight for a share in power and wealth.

The rebel groups – the Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Army – and refugees have accused the government of deliberately bombing and attacking civilians.

The government has denied the allegations.

The U.S., U.N. and international aid groups have said the fighting has created a humanitarian catastrophe. Aid agencies have had only limited access to the region, and more than 110,000 Sudanese have fled into Chad.

U.N. officials and human rights groups have said Arab militia groups, reportedly with government backing, are engaged in “ethnic cleansing” against Africans in Darfur.

“Such reports leave me with a deep sense of foreboding,” said U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan during a meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva Wednesday. “Whatever terms it uses to describe the situation, the international community cannot stand idle.”

Sudanese authorities, which deny the claims, have invited Annan to send a high-level mission to Darfur. So far, however, they have restricted access to the region for aid groups and journalists.

“It is vital that international humanitarian workers and human rights experts be given full access to the region, and to the victims, without further delay,” said Annan.

“If that is denied, the international community must be prepared to take swift and appropriate action. By ‘action’ in such situations I mean a continuum of steps, which may include military action. But the latter should always be seen as an extreme measure, to be used only in extreme cases.”

Snyder said Taha and Garang have reached “90%” agreement on how to share power during a six-year transition period as well as what to do with three disputed areas in northern Sudan , the two issues that have held up a peace deal.

“We’re expecting to finish the remaining issues and to sign an agreement on the power sharing and the three areas latest by Saturday,” rebel spokesman Yasir Arman told The Associated Press Wednesday.

The negotiations in Kenya have been making significant progress, with the parties agreeing in September on what to do with their forces during the transition period. In January, they signed an agreement on how to divide wealth in Africa’s largest country.