Sudanese government, rebels expected to begin Darfur talks in Ethiopia
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, July 15, 2004 (AP) — Sudanese government officials and rebels fighting a 17-month war in western Sudan are expected to begin talks in Ethiopia.
They will be trying to end a conflict in which has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than a million, an African Union spokesman said on Thursday.
Chadian government officials will be meditating the talks together with African Union officials, AU spokesman Desmond Orkjiako told The Associated Press.
He couldn’t confirm if all parties participating in the talks had arrived in Addis Ababa. A United Nations representative would observe the talks, he added.
On Wednesday, Sudan said Agriculture Minister Majzoub al-Khalifa Ahmed, who is also chief of the ruling National Congress party’s political department, will lead a government team at the peace talks.
The rebel Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Army, two groups drawn from the region’s African tribes, took up arms in February 2003 over what they regard as unjust treatment by the government in their struggle over land and resources with Arab countrymen in Darfur.
Foreign governments plus international aid and rights groups accuse the Khartoum government of backing Arab militiamen, known as the Janjaweed, who have carried out looting, destruction and evictions based on ethnicity. The government has denied the charge.
More than 30,000 people have been killed and over 1 million people have been driven from their homes in what the United Nations has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
A cease-fire was signed April 8, but both sides accuse each other of violations.
The rebels and government began talks in March with meetings in Paris, Geneva, Chad’s capital N’djamena and in Addis Ababa.