Int’l conference on Sudan calls on Darfur rebels to join peace talks, urges post-referendum agreement
July 17, 2010 (KHARTOUM) — An international consultative conference concluded its one-day session by calling on the two main Darfur rebel groups to join the peace talks in Qatar and also urged the North-South peace partners to settle post-referendum issues in the remaining time before the key vote in South Sudan.
The conference organized by the African Union witnessed the participation of delegations from the United States, Norway, Qatar, regional and international organizations and representatives of the P-5 members in the UN Security Council (UNSC).
A statement by the conference stressed that the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) must work together to meet the challenges facing the country and support the democratic transformation process.
The NCP & SPLM should make use of the recent elections held in the country and learn from it how to properly prepare for the 2011 referendum and popular consultation in Blue Nile and South Kordofan, the statement said.
This month, a coalition of 24 international humanitarian and human rights organizations warned that the country is “alarmingly unprepared” for the referendum which is less than six months away. There is also a separate referendum for the oil-rich region of Abyei at the border of north and south to decide which side they want to be with.
While the South Sudan referendum commission was recently formed after long delays, no similar one was named to organize the plebiscite for Abyei.
Furthermore, the SPLM & NCP are just now starting discussions on post-referendum arrangements that involve border demarcation, national debt, citizenship, water agreements and oil.
The statement by the conference said that the two sides must iron the post-referendum details noting that success of the CPA depends on availing the necessary resources for development and reconstruction efforts as well as fulfilling the donors’ pledges.
The Sudanese Minister of Cabinet Affairs and SPLM leading figure Luka Byong, for his part, renewed the SPLM commitment to the dialogue with NCP to tackle the outstanding issues. He slammed the NCP for not implementing last year’s ruling on Abyei handed down by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA).
The U.N. undersecretary General for Peacekeeping operations Alain Le Roy, said that the United Nations stands ready to provide all possible technical assistance and consultation for the successful implementation of the referendum.
On Darfur, the Sudanese government urged the international community to pressure rebel groups to come to the negotiation table.
“We want the international community to exert pressure on the armed movements which reject negotiations. They must be persuaded that the peaceful settlement is the only way out of the Darfur crisis,” said Kamal Hassan Ali, Sudanese state minister at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“We want the international community to stress on Doha as the only forum that will lead to realization of peace and stability in Darfur and to set a timetable for the negotiations,” he added.
The Chinese special envoy to Africa Liu Guijin hailed success of the UN-AU joint mediator Dijibril Bassole in making him consider joining the Doha talks following his meeting with Qatari undersecretary for foreign affairs Ahmed bin Abdullah Al-Mahmood in Paris earlier this month which was considered a breakthrough.
The statement by the conference said that a Darfur peace agreement must be reached prior to the January 2011 referendum.
Two major Darfur rebel groups are currently outside the talks namely Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) headed by Khalil Ibrahim and Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) led by Abdel-Wahid Al-Nur.
While SLM-Nur has flatly rejected going to the negotiation table before establishing security on the ground, JEM has ended signing up a framework agreement with Khartoum last February in Qatar which is hosting the peace talks.
However last May, JEM officially withdrew from the talks accusing Khartoum of breaching the accord by launching military attacks against its positions. The militarily powerful group also accused Qatar of being biased in favour of Khartoum.
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telfajbago
Int’l conference on Sudan calls on Darfur rebels to join peace talks, urges post-referendum agreement
o “We want the international community to exert pressure on the armed movements which reject negotiations. They must be persuaded that the peaceful settlement is the only way out of the Darfur crisis,” said Kamal Hassan Ali, Sudanese state minister at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“We want the international community to stress on Doha as the only forum that will lead to realization of peace and stability in Darfur and to set a timetable for the negotiations,” he added.
Hahahahaha. We urge the International Community to assist the ICC to hold Genocide criminals accountable for their actions before any Peace agreement, because the signed Peace agreements with the NCP had proved that achieving peace with genocide-minded criminals of the NCP is out of question, Therefore the only way I believe to stabilize Sudan will be through jailing those criminals who give lip services about peace while they are waging all-out war against the people. Justice before Peace. As for Doha talks; no body wants to sell himself off to his enemy, in an enemy-created venue and it’s only regime-created Sissei is there in Doha a adorned by handful few struggle weary individuals who became homesick waiting any peace to be signed in order to give them free passage to go home but not the representatives of the people. That is why Doha will not make any difference
DASODIKO
Int’l conference on Sudan calls on Darfur rebels to join peace talks, urges post-referendum agreement
Its very funny that NCP is calling the International Community to pressure Darfur rebels to join the talks in Doha. NCP the notion they had is use of force against any opponent, they have. Today because they failed to crush the Darfur rebels now they call upon International Community to pressure the rebels. Unfortunately its too late; the NCP has shown bad faith for the International Community,first by dishonering the agreements, second, by expelling the NGOs to starve the needy people of Sudan. If NCP is really serious of peace in Sudan, it must show good will first. But according to my experience with these Islamist, there is nothing call good will; what they profess is cheating and lying, and this too characteristics will bring their end in Sudan.