Sudan government, western rebels agree to observe a cease-fire to allow aid delivery
NAIROBI, Kenya, April 7, 2004 (AP) — A Sudanese government delegation held direct talks with rebels fighting the yearlong insurgency in western Sudan on Tuesday and the official spokesman for the government delegation, Tiganni Salih Fidail, told state-run Sudan television that the two sides had agreed to observe a cease-fire to allow the delivery of humanitarian relief.
Fidail said the humanitarian issues top the government’s concerns and realized the importance of a cease-fire “in the remedy of difficulties which the region of Darfur faces.”
He didn’t say when the cease-fire would begin.
The two sides met face-to-face Tuesday for the first time since the talks mediated by Chad and the African Union began on March 31.
Meanwhile, a senior U.S. official said Wednesday that 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 talks on a separate conflict in western Sudan may gain momentum.
Sudanese Vice President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha and John Garang, the leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, said they could reach an agreement by this weekend after six months of talks, according to Charles Snyder, the acting U.S. Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, who has been involved in the negotiations.
The U.S. had considered recalling its meditators from the talks as unrelated fighting in Darfur has intensified, Snyder said, but decided to keep the delegation in Kenya because the two sides say they are near an agreement.
“We protested strongly to them and pointed out the need to close this deal,” said Snyder.
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.
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.”