Sudan peace talks under way as UN avoids harsh critique of atrocities
NDJAMENA, April 23 (AFP) — The warring sides from the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region began delayed peace talks, as a UN human rights panel adopted a mildly worded text on alleged atrocities in what has been called the world’s worst ongoing humanitarian disaster.
The meeting in the Chadian capital Ndjamena, delayed since Tuesday, is part of efforts to resolve a civil war that has claimed some 10,000 lives since it erupted in the Darfur region of western Sudan in February 2003.
The rebellion, prompted by the region’s dire poverty, has displaced about one million people inside Sudan and forced more than 100,000 others to flee to neighbouring Chad, according to UN estimates.
The conflict is described by the United Nations as currently the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe.
The negotiators in Ndjamena hope the talks will lead to “a definitive solution” to the conflict.
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, held two hours of talks Friday accompanied by Chadian mediators.
The two sides made written proposals, which will be studied by the Chadian mediators, a source close to the mediators said, adding that the talks would resume on Saturday.
The source described the atmosphere as “less tense” but reported friction within the MJE, the military wing of which did not attend the talks.
A Chadian government source had earlier blamed the three-day delay in the start of the talks on an internal rift in the MJE.
Meanwhile in Geneva, the top UN human rights forum adopted a softly worded text on the alleged government-backed atrocities, prompting the US to demand a second vote for stronger action.
Fifty members of the the UN Commission on Human Rights approved the document drawn up as a compromise between the European Union and a bloc of African nations. One country voted against the text, and there were two abstentions.
An angered US delegation chief Richard Williamson insisted that a second vote be taken on an original, stronger draft resolution, submitted by the EU and co-sponsored by Washington.
“The horrific events in Darfur demand strong action,” Williamson said: “I ask my colleagues to reflect on the ethnic cleansing, that 30,000 people have been killed and 900,000 IDPs (internally displaced persons) exist,” he said.
But a majority of the 53-member commission decided to throw out the motion.
A UN team was due in Darfur Friday to investigate refugee reports of atrocities committed against black Africans in Darfur by Arab militias backed by Khartoum. The United States demanded a special session of the Commission on Human Rights upon the return of the team.
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.
The UN has said it would send an aid mission to assess needs following reports of widespread violence by government-backed militias.
The head of the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), James Morris would depart for Darfur next week, said a spokeswoman.
The Sudanese authorities have given Morris the go-ahead to lead a team into the country after they twice delayed an earlier mission to have been headed by UN emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland.
Egeland has accused the Khartoum government of waging a “scorched earth” policy of ethnic cleansing against non-Arabs in the north African country.
Sudan has denied arming the Arab militias that have looted and burned African villages, which Egeland said on Monday has left one million people displaced in addition to 100,000 who have fled to neighbouring Chad.
The WFP had launched an appeal for 98 million dollars (82 million euros) to fund food aid for 1.2 million victims in Darfur.
“Even if the conflict were to stop tomorrow, hundreds of thousands of people remain at risk of famine and death,” the spokeswoman said.