Darfur peace bid stalls as rebels, govt argue
By Tsegaye Tadesse
ADDIS ABABA, July 16 (Reuters) – An African Union (AU) bid to rescue Darfur’s fragile peace process stumbled on its second day on Friday when rebels set Khartoum six conditions for negotiations and the government immediately rejected them.
The demands by the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), rebel groups fighting for the past 18 months in the country’s remote west, included disarming of Arab militias and access for an inquiry into genocide charges.
The government, facing worldwide protests over the militia attacks on civilians, immediately rejected the demands, which the rebels said had to be met within one month.
Government spokesman Ibrahim Ahmed Ibrahim told Reuters: “We will not accept the conditions because they are impractical…We do agree people are being killed, but the question is who is killing them?”
“Sudan may agree to consider the conditions presented by the rebels if they are put out as an agenda for discussions, but not as a pre-requisite for talks.”
Ibrahim said his delegation would stay in Addis Ababa for as long as it took to reach an accord, and asked the AU ceasefire monitors in Darfur to quickly assess who was guilty for attacks in the region. He said Khartoum was not to blame.
The 53-nation AU formally opened the talks on Thursday to try to stop fighting in the remote western region that has created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
The United Nations says the fighting has displaced more than one million people, and as many as 30,000 have been killed.
But the warring parties had no plans to meet on Friday, billed as the first real day of talks. AU officials met members of the government delegation, and said they had pushed to Saturday a meeting with rebels, some of whom had failed to arrive in Addis Ababa on time.
ATTACKS ON VILLAGES
Rebels launched a revolt in Darfur last year after long conflict between African villagers and Arab nomads.
The rebels accuse the government of arming Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, to loot and burn African villages in a campaign of ethnic cleansing. Khartoum denies the charge.
The AU-hosted talks are meant to cover the status of a truce, disarmament of combatants, the humanitarian situation and deployment of AU ceasefire monitors, AU officials say.
The situation has gained increased urgency with the rainy season already affecting parts of Darfur. Aid workers have said the rain, in addition to continued security concerns, will severely hamper desperately needed humanitarian operations.
“We are not going to engage in political dialogue until the Sudan government fulfils the conditions set by the SLM and JEM, although we will meet the AU officials separately for consultations,” Ahmed Tugod Lissan of JEM told reporters.
The other conditions are bringing criminals who committed genocide or ethnic cleansing to justice, creating unimpeded humanitarian access for food aid, release of prisoners of war and detainees and a neutral venue for future talks.
The rebels say Addis Ababa is not a neutral venue because of the Ethiopian government’s friendship with Khartoum.