Darfur peace talks to resume next October – mediator

September 7, 2009 (KHARTOUM) — Darfur peace mediator and the Qatari facilitators announced on Monday that the next round of talks between the government and Darfur rebel groups would be held at the last week of October.

The decision was made public after a meeting today in Doha between the state minister for foreign affairs Ahmed Bin Abdullah Al-Mahmoud who in charge of the file from the Qatari side and the Joint Chief Mediator Djibril Bassole to “discuss ways of advancing the peace process and achieving a comprehensive and lasting peace in Darfur.”

“The Qatari Minister and the Mediator agreed that talks between the Government of National Unity of Sudan and the Darfuri armed movements would resume in the last week of October 2009,” said a statement released by the mediator on Monday.

However this round of talks would be preceded by two workshops, the mediation said.

During the first week of October, there will be an all rebels workshop in Doha “to discuss issues related to the peace process, including the improvement of security for the people of Darfur and socio-economic development.”

Also and in a parallel way, the mediation will hold during the same month a civil society forum to enable “Darfur’s diverse communities to contribute to the establishment of peace and reconciliation and to promote sustainable development in Darfur.”

These steps come after a series of successful attempts to reunite Darfur rebel groups by friends of the peace process like Libya and the United States. The mediation now has four rebel groups before the talks. Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) of Abdel Wahid Al-Nur, Sudan’s Liberation Revolutionary Forces (SLRF) and another coalition of rebels engaged in a unity process sponsored by the US envoy to Sudan Scott Gration.

Bassole indicated last week that this all rebels workshop would allow to the rebels to better discuss their demands and narrow gaps between them over their priorities.

Last August, the Libyan government succeeded to gather JEM leader and the other rebel groups. The meeting was considered successful because it allowed a first contact between people who reject each other.

October talks if convened would witness the participation of several rebel groups for the first time in the talks with the government. Up to now only JEM had been involved in the Doha process.

However, JEM which signed a goodwill agreement last February asks Khartoum to release over hundred fighters who are sentenced to death after an attack on Khartoum in May 2008, but the government says the rebel movement has to sign a ceasefire agreement before that.

However Al-Mahmoud and Bassole urged today “the signatories of the Doha Goodwill Agreement of 17 February 2009, to take all necessary measures to foster confidence and promote dialogue for the restoration of a lasting peace in Darfur.”

(ST)