Darfur talks in limbo as rebel groups cast doubt on attendance
KHARTOUM, Aug 13 (AFP) — Uncertainty prevailed Friday over efforts to find a negotiated end to the armed conflict and humanitarian crisis in Sudan’s western Darfur region as rebels threatened to stay away from talks in Nigeria.
At the same time a diplomat in Ndjamena, the capital of neighboring Chad, said informal peace talks had begun in the Libyan town of Sirte amid growing confusion over who was taking the lead in mediation efforts.
Khartoum reaffirmed its willingness to take part in a new round of talks scheduled for August 23 in the Nigerian capital Abuja, but the two main rebel groups left their attendance in doubt.
“We are ready to go to any corner of the world to negotiate a settlement to the political issue in Darfur,” State Foreign Minister Naguib al-Khair Abdel Wahab told AFP Friday.
“We have responded positively to an invitation by the African Union for participation in the negotiation in the Nigerian capital on August 23 and we believe this date still holds as we have not until now received a word from the AU on any change,” he said.
But a spokesman for Movement for Justice and Equality, one of the two Darfur rebel groups, told AFP Thursday that the MJE would take part in the Abuja talks but wanted the date put back.
“We shall take part, but there is a small problem,” said Colonel Abdallah Abdel Kerim, military spokesman for the MJE. “On August 23 we have other commitments with our partners and militants.”
The other group, the Sudan Liberation Army, took a similar stance when its leader Abdel Wahed Mohamed Ahmed al-Nur told AFP Wednesay that the timing was awkward.
“The August 23 date might not be convenient because the rainy season and the lack of transport make the movement of SLA representatives very difficult,” he said.
Meanwhile the diplomat in Ndjamena told AFP on Thursday: “A reconciliation meeting has been in progress since yesterday evening at Sirte in Libya between the two (Darfur) rebel movements, the Sudanese government, the African Union and the Chadian foreign minister.
“The Sirte meeting is informal and we are afraid it (the mediation process) will be taken over by (Libyan President Moamer) Kadhafi at the expense of the African Union,” the diplomat said.
Representatives of Chad, the United Nations, Nigeria and the AU also gathered in Ndjamena on Thursday to prepare for the Ajuba meeting, a spokesman for the mediation process said.
Reports from the United Nations and rights groups issued over the past few days harshly criticised the Sudanese government for failing to end the crisis in Darfur, which the world body says has left between 30,000 and 50,000 people dead.
The reports alleged Khartoum was incorporating into the police militias which are accused of war crimes, continuing raids on Darfur and failing to protect the estimated 1.2 million displaced, instead arresting those who spoke to foreign officials or journalists.
A day before 150 Rawndan troops were due to be airlifted to Darfur by the Netherlands as part of the batch of a 300-strong AU protection force for ceasefire monitors, Khartoum reiterated its opposition to any plans by the pan-African body to send a larger peacekeeping force.
Nigeria had warned Khartoum on Thursday that “if Sudan will not yield to gentle and African pressure it will have to succumb to extra-African pressure that might not be so gentle,” in the words of government spokewoman Remi Oyo.
But Abdel Wahab was adamant that “the task of keeping peace and protecting civilians is exclusively a Sudanese responsibility.”
Talk of Western intervention in crisis-ridden Darfur prompted accusations from Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir that the United States and Europe were seeking to reimpose colonial rule in his country and plunder its resources.
But Washington flatly denied the accusations Thursday and insisted it was motivated solely by humanitarian concerns.
“Oil and gold is not the issue here,” a State Department spokesman said. “The issue is saving people from disease, starvation, rape and murder.”