Sudan warns United States it will reject any new initiative for peace in Darfur

August 13, 2011 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese government said it would reject any American initiative aiming to hold new negotiations with the rebel groups to end the eight year conflict in Darfur.

US Senior Advisor for Darfur, Dane Smith, said his government would invite Sudanese government, Darfur rebels and international partners to meet in Washington next September. He pointed out that the reunion aims mainly to consider the way forward after the signing of a peace agreement between Khartoum and the Liberation and Equality Movement (LJM). But he ruled out they would come with any initiative.

The gathering will include the Justice and Equality Movement which asks to open the Doha peace document adopted last May for negotiations, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) of Abdel Wahid Al-Nur which boycotts the Doha process and the SLM- Minni Minnawi who signed the Abuja peace agreement in 2006 but renounced it this year.

The former rebel LJM also will attend the meeting as the implementation of the Doha peace agreement will also be debated in Washington.

“If the Washington meeting aims to launch a new initiative we say there is no room for any new initiative to replace the Doha imitative which is sponsored by the State of Qatar and supported by the African Union and United Nations,” said Khartoum’s chief negotiator Amin Hassan Omer.

Amin who was speaking to Alray Alaam daily also said Washington did not inform them officially about the meeting.

Sudan’s foreign ministry spokesperson Al-Obaid Marawih echoed Amin’s statements saying that Washington will commit a “big mistake” if it supports rebels’ demand to open new talks

“The US Administration would be committing a big mistake because it will not only be an insult to the Sudan, but also to those who supported the Doha agreement,” he further stressed.

The Sudanese official was alluding to the African Union, Arab League and United Nations which officially brought their support to the Doha peace framework document and urged the Sudanese parties to engage talks for a lasting peace in western Sudan.

The framework document is supposed to outline the features of peace agreements between the government and rebel groups in a way that the content of different deals be more or less similar even if they are negotiated separately.

During the Doha stakeholders conference, the US special envoy Princeton Lyman and the Senior Adviser for Darfur, Dane Smith approved the Doha peace document but stressed that it should be a basis for further negotiations between the government and the rebel groups.

The then Joint Chief Mediator, Djibril Bassolé, proposed the idea of a framework document as basis for separate peace agreements between the government and rebel groups, after failing to persuade the rebel groups to unite under common grounds before to negotiate with the government.

He also insisted on the need for a comprehensive and inclusive process to bring a lasting peace in Darfur. Bassole also was very critical to a parallel initiative aiming to include Darfur displaced, civil society and tribal leaders called Darfur Political Process because it excludes the rebel groups.

However, Khartoum said the Doha peace document should be not be amended and propose to the rebel groups to only discuss the political participation in the national and regional institutions and the security arrangements including the absorption of their fighters in the regular army.

(ST)