Darfur rebels say will attend peace talks

By Nima Elbagir

KHARTOUM, Aug 12 (Reuters) – Rebels from Sudan’s troubled western Darfur region said they would attend peace talks in Nigeria at the end of the month to try to end a conflict that has displaced more than a million people.

Sudan is under intense international pressure to rein in Arab militias accused of looting and burning African farming villages and provide security for those displaced in the fighting in the remote area bordering Chad.

If not, the U.N. Security Council says Khartoum could face unspecified sanctions.

“We thought we could have been sufficiently consulted before fixing the date in particular but nevertheless we will go,” said Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) spokesman Ali Trayo from Asmara.

The African Union on Sunday proposed an Aug. 23 date.

Bahar Idriss Abu Garda, Secretary-General of JEM, the other main rebel group, told Reuters from Darfur that they would go to the talks, although the actual date might be problematic.

“Yes, we are going to the talks, but we have some remarks about the time they decided because we have a conference in Germany at same time,” he said. “Because of that we want to postpone the time.”

The SLA also said the date gave them little time to organise and inform their movement commanders scattered throughout Darfur, a remote area the size of France.

The SLA and JEM launched a revolt in February last year accusing Khartoum of neglect and of arming the Arab militias known as Janjaweed to drive African farmers from their lands.

Sudan denies the charge saying the Janjaweed, a term derived from the Arabic for devils on horseback, are outlaws. The U.N. says the conflict has triggered the world’s worst humanitarian crisis with about 200,000 refugees in neighbouring Chad.

Abu Garda also said the rebels had agreed with the World Food Programme (WFP) to give the U.N. body access to rebel-held areas in Darfur to distribute food.

“Our delegation in Asmara headed by our president and also the SLA agreed … and we will commit ourselves to execute this. In our whole area the WFP are free to come and see the people,” he said, adding they would be afforded full protection.

But he added that the JEM could not protect them if the government bombed their areas despite an April truce signed in the Chadian capital N’Djamena.

“The government should commit itself to stopping any flyovers of our territories,” he said.

HELICOPTER ATTACKS

The United Nations said in a statement from Geneva on Tuesday Sudan had used helicopter gunships in fresh attacks in south Darfur. The government denied the reports and the top U.N. official in Khartoum said they were still being checked.

But rights group Human Rights Watch said atrocities like rape were still happening in Darfur, despite government promises to bring security to those displaced.

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said Western nations were exploiting the Darfur conflict to gain control of resources like oil and gold in the arid region.

“There is an agenda to seek for petrol and gold in the region,” he told a women’s union meeting convened on Darfur in Khartoum on Thursday.

“This highlife that they (the West) enjoy now is a result of the theft of the colonies and their riches and peoples,” he said, with a specific reference to Britain.

Sudan’s two main oil fields are in the south, although Khartoum is hopeful of more oil discoveries in Africa’s largest country.

(Additional reporting by Opheera McDoom in Cairo)