Sudan apprehensive as Washington takes pulse of peace talks

KHARTOUM, Sudan, April 22, 2004 (PANA) — Officials sounded apprehensive here
ahead of Washington’s periodic assessment Wednesday of the
political climate in Sudan, with focus on progress in peace talks
between Khartoum and the separatist Sudan Peoples Liberation
Movement/Army (SPLM/A).

Earlier this month, the US State Department gave the government
and the SPLM/A until 21 April to seal a deal or face sanctions.

Under the US 2001 Sudan Peace Act, President George W. Bush makes
a six-monthly assessment of peace efforts by the belligerents in
Sudan’s 20-year conflict. The next such periodic evaluation is
due 22 April.

“The new report of the Peace Act is expected to attack the
government regarding developments in Darfur,” Sudanese Foreign
Minister Mustafa Osman Ismael quipped at a press briefing here.

“We also expect an extension of the period to another six
months,” Ismael said, urging the US administration to help the
negotiating parties to achieve a final peace accord instead of
threatening sanctions.

Under the Act, Washington can seek a UN arms embargo on the
Sudanese government and restrict Khartoum’s access to credit and
oil revenue if the government was found to have obstructed a
peaceful resolution of the conflict.

Apprehensions heightened here when the European Union and other
western countries tried to push through a resolution at the
Geneva-based UN Human Rights Commission denouncing Khartoum over
atrocities in especially the troubled western region of Darfur.

The move aborted and last Tuesday, Khartoum acknowledged the
solidarity of a group of African countries, which helped to block
the resolution.

Ismael said the government would spare no effort to improve the
deteriorating situation in Darfur, promising that “the government
would not repeat any mistakes committed in the past period in
Darfur.”

On Tuesday, the authorities acquiesced for the first time to a
probe on the situation in Darfur by the UN Commission on Human
Rights.

The government and the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLA) and
Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) recently agreed to a 45-day
truce to enable the delivery of humanitarian aid to the region.

Peace talks between parties to the conflict are currently
underway in N’djamena, Chad.