Sudanese government and rebels talking in Paris: official

PARIS, June 25 (AFP) — Talks between representatives of the Sudanese government and one of the rebel movements in the strife-torn Darfur region are underway in Paris, a Sudanese official here said Friday without giving details of the discussions.

“We don’t walk to go into it for the moment, that was part of the deal,” Mohammed Yusef Abdallah, Sudan’s minister of state for humanitarian affairs told a media conference, said as he confirmed the meeting with members of the rebel Movement for Justice and Equality (MJE).

Contacts “have already been made on the ground, during which we have discussed several problems…. The discussions are continuing,” he said.

He added that talks with the other main rebel group in Darfur, the Movement for the Liberation of Sudan, would begin “very soon”.

Abdallah was accompanied by a Sudanese government spokesman, Said Al-Khatib.

The United Nations has said the southern Sudanese region of Darfur is in the grip of a humanitarian crisis.

At least 10,000 people have been killed in the western region, although many believe the toll is grossly underestimated.

Another one million have been displaced. At least 120,000 refugees have poured into neighbouring Chad.

The UN says refugees are living in dire conditions, many afraid to return home for fear that they will be killed by pro-government Arab militias accused of conducting an ethnic cleansing campaign.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan are to travel to Darfur next week in a sign of the international concern over the situation there. Ministers from Italy, France and Switzerland have already also made trips.

The French foreign ministry said it was providing an undisclosed location for the talks in Paris but was not playing any role in them.