Darfur rebel group rejects call for negotiations

LIBREVILLE, July 3 (AFP) — One of two rebel groups in Sudan’s western Darfur region said Saturday it will not join political negotiations in the Ethiopian capital this month aimed at ending the crisis.

“We will not go to Addis Ababa on July 15 as we not involved in choosing the date or the place for the political negotiations,” said Abdallah Abdel Kerim, spokesman for the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).

“These negotiations are coming too quickly, since several of the points in the ceasefire accord of April 8 have not been respected, like the creation of a humanitarian corridor and the disarming of the Janjawid,” the government-backed Arab militias, said the spokesman, reached by telephone from Libreville.

The president of the African Union, Alpha Oumar Konare, announced Friday that political negotiations between the warring parties to try to end the crisis are to begin on July 15 in Addis Ababa.

“The problem with Darfur is political, its solution is political, hence the necessity for the parties to quickly begin political negotiations… on July 15 in Addis Ababa,” the Ethiopian capital, Konare said in Ndjamena.

“We hope that all the parties are properly represented…,” he said.

At least 10,000 people have been killed in Darfur since fighting broke out in February last year, when black African rebel groups rose up against the Arab government in Khartoum.

Ndjamena brokered talks between Darfur rebels and the government in Khartoum which resulted in a ceasefire in April 8.

A Sudanese government delegation and representatives of the JEM and the other rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), then held talks in the Chadian capital in late April on “political issues.” But they ended only with an agreement to meet again at an unspecified date, and no further talks have so far taken place.

The JEM spokesman also said Saturday he gave “no credence” to a pledge by the government in Khartoum to take immediate steps to disarm the state-sponsored Arab militias accused of sparking the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.

The statement, made public Saturday as UN Secretary General Kofi Annan ended a visit to the country, said the Sudanese government commits itself to “immediately start to disarm the Janjawid and other armed outlaw groups.”