Sudanese minister in Paris for talks with Darfur rebels: embassy
PARIS, June 24 (AFP) — Sudan’s Deputy Humanitarian Affairs Minister Mohammed Youssef Abdallah was Thursday preparing for talks in Paris with rebels from the vast African country’s war-wracked Darfur region, the Sudanese embassy said.
Abdallah “arrived recently in Paris and will meet here with representatives of the Justice and Equality Movement (MJE),” said the embassy spokesman named only as Mr al-Faki, referring to one of two main rebel groups in the western Darfur region.
The other main rebel group in Darfur, the Sudan Liberation Movement (MLS), which along with the MJE rose up against Khartoum in February last year, will not take part in the talks, said the spokesman.
He added that France’s involvement in the talks was limited to hosting them.
War broke out in Darfur in February 2003 when black African rebel groups, complaining of the marginalisation of their region and a lack of protection for local people, rose up against the government in Khartoum.
The government’s response was to give an Arab militia, the Janjawid, a free rein in cracking down on the rebels. Since the conflict broke out, Khartoum’s proxy militia hase been accused of conducting a scorched earth campaign and ethnic cleansing in Darfur.
At least 10,000 people have been killed in Darfur — many believe the toll is grossly underestimated — one million displaced and at least 120,000 refugees have poured into Chad from the ravaged region in western Sudan.
A UN human rights report released last month accused the Sudanese government of committing massive human rights violations in Darfur that may amount to crimes against humanity.
Senior French foreign ministry envoy Renaud Muselier has just ended a visit to Sudan that took in Darfur.
He signed an agreement to donate three million euros (3.6 million dollars) in French aid to war-torn Sudan, during a meeting with Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir on Tuesday.
The Sudanese government and both Darfur rebel groups have agreed to the deployment of international observers of a ceasefire signed in April, but repeatedly violated.
Muselier said a French colonel would be part of the international truce monitoring team and that France would supply logistical support to the observer group.
The Sudanese embassy said Khartoum’s spokesman at peace talks with rebels in another part of the country, the south, where a 21-year civil war is on the brink of being peacefully resolved, was also in Paris, but would not be involved in the negotiations for Darfur.
Sudan’s government and the main southern rebel group are Friday due to enter a crucial final round of talks to clinch a definitive end to the civil war in the south.
Muselier met on Wednesday at the Sudan-Ethiopia border with the head of the southern Sudanese rebel group, John Garang.