Sudanese rebels set preconditions for peace talks
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, July 16, 2004 (AP) — Negotiations aimed at ending a 17-month war in Sudan ‘s western Darfur region faltered before they even started Friday, with two rebel groups demanding the government fulfill a list of previous commitments before embarking on a new round of talks to resolve what has been called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Without concerted pressure – both diplomatic and military – analysts warned the negotiations were doomed to fail.
Chief among the rebels’ demands was a timeline for implementing Sudan ‘s often-repeated pledge to disarm the shadowy Arab militias, who are accused of killing tens of thousands of black Africans and driving more than a million from their homes in a campaign of ethnic cleansing, said former Niger Prime Minister and mediator Hamid Algabid.
The rebels are also seeking government commitments to respect previous agreements, allow access for an international inquiry into the killings, bring those responsible to justice, lift restrictions on humanitarian assistance in Darfur and release prisoners of war.
Most of the rebels’ demands are contained in a widely ignored cease-fire deal signed April 8 with the government. Analysts said it was now up to world leaders to maintain pressure on Sudan to drive the process forward.
“As the rebels rightly pointed out, you can’t have meaningful progress without respect of the myriad of agreements that have already taken place,” said John Prendergast, an African specialist at the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank.
The African Union last week pledged to send 300 troops to Darfur to help protect international observers sent to investigate cease-fire violations. Prendergast said this was a good start, but what was needed was a larger force with the mandate to protect civilians.
While the latest round of talks officially got underway on Thursday, the warring sides have yet to meet face-to-face or agree on an agenda, AU spokesman Desmond Orjiako said.
AU mediators met separately Friday with the Sudanese government delegation headed by Agriculture Minister Majzoub al-Khalifa Ahmed and planned to meet with the insurgents on Saturday, Algabid said.
The government of Chad, which borders Sudan and is hosting more than 200,000 refugees from Darfur, is also mediating at the talks.
Conspicuously absent are representatives of the Arab militias known as the Janjaweed, blamed for the bulk of the killings and expulsions from Darfur.
U.N. and African leaders maintain that it is up to the Sudanese government to contain the fighters it is accused of backing.
“I don’t know what constructive role they could play at the peace negotiations. They are war criminals,” said Eric Reeves, a professor at Smith College in Massachusetts and one of the leading academic experts on Sudan . “You cannot have genocidaires sitting at the peace table.”
But humanitarian workers in Darfur have privately questioned how much control authorities in the faraway capital of Khartoum exert over the armed bands roaming a vast and desolate area the size of Iraq.
Nomadic Arab tribes have long been in conflict with their African farming neighbors over the region’s dwindling resources, particularly water and usable land.
The tensions exploded into violence when two African rebel groups – the Sudan Liberation Army and Justice and Equality Movement – took up arms in February 2003 over what they regard as unjust treatment by the government in their struggle with Arab countrymen.
Since then, a calamity has unfolded in Darfur as armed bands of herders, most of them Arabs, have torched village after village, killing up to 30,000 people and driving more than 1 million black Africans from their homes, according to U.N. estimates. The U.S. Agency for International Development has warned that the death toll could surge to 350,000 or more if aid doesn’t reach some 2 million people soon.
U.N. officials, the rebels and refugees have accused the government of backing the Janjaweed with airplanes, helicopter gunships and vehicles. The government denies any involvement in the attacks.
Ahmed, Sudan ‘s agriculture minister, reiterated Thursday that the government is trying to disarm all “illegal militias” operating in Darfur. But rebels insisted helicopter and airplane attacks continue in Darfur.
The peace initiative follows a concerted diplomatic push by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who both visited the region earlier this month.
Sudan ‘s Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail signed an agreement with Annan on June 3 that calls for disarming the Janjaweed, deploying 6,000 Sudanese soldiers and policemen to improve security, facilitating humanitarian aid, and allowing AU troops and human rights monitors into Darfur.
At a follow-up meeting in Khartoum on Thursday, Ismail told U.N. envoy to Sudan Jan Pronk that those facing charges of human rights violations in Darfur would be tried in court. But he said two weeks wasn’t enough time to fulfill all its commitments.