Sudan govt, west rebels not signed ceasefire

(Recasts with source, rebel denial of ceasefire signing)

By Nima Elbagir

KHARTOUM, April 8 (Reuters) – The Sudanese government and rebels from west Sudan have reached an accord on humanitarian aid for the stricken area but have not signed a ceasefire deal, a source close to peace talks in Chad said on Thursday.

The government earlier said it had signed a ceasefire deal, but this was denied by one of the two western rebel groups, which took up arms against Khartoum a year ago, arguing that the Darfur region had been neglected by the central government.

“They agreed a humanitarian protocol, which is a cessation of hostilities, but they’ve not signed anything,” the source close to the talks said on condition on anonymity.

Sudanese state radio, monitored by the BBC, also reported a deal on aid for the area, where the United Nations has warned of a humanitarian disaster.

But the radio report said the two sides in the Chadian capital, N’Djamena, were still discussing a ceasefire, with an agreement expected “within the next few hours”.

On Wednesday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned the international community that a Rwanda-style genocide may be in the making in the arid region of Darfur and suggested an international military force could be needed there.

The Khartoum government rejected the idea, and U.S. officials said Washington was focusing on diplomatic efforts to stop the violence. The United Nations estimates more than one million people have been affected by the conflict. Some 110,000 refugees have fled into neighbouring Chad.

RAPING, KILLING, LOOTING

State minister for foreign affairs, Najeeb al-Kheir Abdul Wahab, told Reuters earlier the two sides had signed a ceasefire but rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), said no deal had been reached because the government had refused to disarm the Arab militias, known as the Janjaweed.

Rebels say the government backs the militias to burn and loot African villages. Khartoum calls the militias outlaws.

“We did not sign,” JEM spokesman Abu Bakr Hamid al-Nur told Reuters from the talks. “We want to sign but the government said they don’t want to stop the wrongdoings of the Janjaweed.”

The other rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) was not immediately available to comment.

Two senior U.N. officials have described the killing and looting as a “scorched earth” campaign and “ethnic cleansing”. Both said Khartoum had done nothing to stop the bloodshed.

Husam Bashir, director of the Sudanese Human Rights Group in Khartoum, said he hoped a ceasefire would translate on the ground as marauding militias aligned to both sides had become autonomous in their killing raids.

“We hope that it is going to be put into effect on the ground by both parties, because supporters of the parties are not in uniform,”

U.S. President George W. Bush on Wednesday condemned the atrocities by Arab militias in Darfur and suggested Washington would not normalise relations with Sudan until it stopped the conflict.

Washington still lists Sudan as a “state sponsor of terrorism”, but had said it could reconsider the listing if a separate peace deal being negotiated to end more than two decades of civil war in southern Sudan was signed.

Separately, a southern rebel official said on Wednesday a deal could be reached within three days to end the 20-year-old conflict that has claimed some two million lives.

(Additional reporting by Opheera McDoom in Cairo)