Sudan, rebels agree to peace talks under AU
By Tsegaye Tadesse
ADDIS ABABA, Aug 8 (Reuters) – The government of Sudan and two rebel groups fighting in the western Darfur region have agreed to peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria on Aug. 23, the African Union said on Sunday.
AU spokesman Adam Thiam said the group’s chairman, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, would mediate discussions between the Sudanese government, the Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Army in the Nigerian capital.
Both rebel groups have been fighting government troops in Sudan’s remote western region for the past 19 months.
Fighting in Darfur and raids by marauding Arab militias known as Janjaweed have uprooted more than one million African villagers and precipitated a humanitarian crisis the United Nations has called the worst in the world.
“The rebels and the government of Sudan have agreed to attend the talks,” Thiam said from Addis Ababa, where the AU’s headquarters are located.
“The talks will be a continuation of the political dialogue started in Addis Ababa on July 15 under the auspices of the African Union.”
Those talks failed when the rebels set six conditions for negotiations and Khartoum immediately rejected them. The chief demands included Sudan’s demilitarization of Darfur and access to an inquiry into genocide charges.
Obasanjo and AU Commission Chairman Alpha Konare, former president of Mali, worked with Sudan and the rebels to set up the talks, Thiam said.
The 53-member AU is proposing to send up to 2,000 troops to protect its ceasefire monitors in Darfur and to serve as peacekeepers, but has yet to send a formal request to Khartoum.
On Saturday, Sudan said it would permit African troops to protect their monitors, but said only its troops would handle the peacekeeping functions.
Sudan has about three weeks left to show the U.N. Security Council it is serious about disarming the Janjaweed or face possible sanctions.
Sudan’s foreign minister, Mustafa Osman Ismail, also said on Saturday he had signed a Sudanese-U.N. pact pledging safe areas for the displaced villagers. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan sent the signed pact to the U.N. Security Council on Friday.
In addition to pledging the safe areas, Sudan also promised in the pact to work to disarm the Janjaweed and to stop actions by its own troops in civilian areas.
The Arab League, meanwhile, was due to hold an emergency meeting on Sunday to discuss the Darfur situation with Khartoum.