Sudan’s Darfur rebels and government get down to talks

NDJAMENA, April 20 (AFP) — Two warring sides from Sudan prepared to seek a solution to a conflict in a region where fighting has claimed 10,000 lives and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes, in what is being called the world’s worst current humanitarian disaster.

A Sudan government delegation and rebels from Darfur region in western Sudan met in Ndjamena, capital of the neighbouring state of Chad, for the formal opening of talks following a truce two weeks ago.

The conflict, provoked by poverty in the territory of Darfur, is described by the United Nations as currently the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe.

In Geneva, a UN spokesman said Tuesday Sudan would allow a UN team into the country within days to probe alleged atrocities by government-backed militia in Darfur.

Nagoum Yamassoum, foreign minister of Chad, formally opened the talks, saying the teams were expected to get down to business proper on Wednesday.

The government and the rebels both say they want to achieve global agreement to end the conflict which has so far caused at least 10,000 deaths and forced 670,000 people to flee their homes, including more than 100,000 who have taken refuge in Chad.

The rebels of Darfur, inhabited mainly by non-Arab Muslims, are pushing for economic development of their desperately poor land and for a more equitable sharing out of meagre national resources.

They complain that Darfur has been marginalised by Arab Muslim authorities in Khartoum.

Peace negotiations here will focus on political aspects of the conflict and setting up a commission tasked with implementing the 45-day ceasefire, renewable.

At Tuesday’s opening ceremony, the rebels accused the Sudan authorities in Khartoum of violating a ceasefire, saying local Araba militia fighting with the Sudanese army had burned down 10 villages Monday in western Darfur.

The talks are being held between a Sudanese government delegation and representatives of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), who agreed a truce on April 8.

The accord was reached after a week of tough negotiating, with Chad mediating together with African Union (AU) diplomats and officials of the international community including the European Union and the United States.

Talks set for Tuesday were delayed by a day, a member of the Chadian mediation team said, as a split appeared within one of two rebel groups.

Confusion surrounded who would represent the JEM.

Hassan Khames Joruu, who described himself as the JEM’s political coordinator, said: “We are not ready to discuss any political issue, only an agenda.”

“Tomorrow (Wednesday) we will talk about the ceasefire commission and a calendar of political issues,” he said.

But the movement’s military spokesman, Colonel Abdallah Abdel Karim, said Joruu — whose name is on a list of JEM delegates to the talks — had never been part of the JEM and never would be.

Speaking from Darfur, Abdel Karim said: “(Joruu) is not part of the delegation and is a pure creation of the Chadian and Sudanese governments” to discredit the JEM.

In the truce accord, the government and the JEM and SLM rebels pledged to guarantee safe passage for humanitarian aid to Darfur, free prisoners of war and disarm Arab militias blamed for most of the violence there.

The ceasefire is the third declared in the conflict, following two short-lived truces.

Joruu said JEM president Khalil Mohammed Ibrahim, his brother Jibril, general secretary Mohammed Bechir Ahmed and coordinator Abubker Hamid Nour, who led the JEM delegation to Ndjamena at the beginning of April, “have been ejected from the JEM.”

Abdel Karim denied the claim, saying that the April ceasefire agreement had been initialled by Hamid Nour on behalf of the JEM and that the only JEM delegation was that led by Hamid Nour, and made up of three other people, who did not include Joruu.