Roundup: Sudan pledges political solution to Darfur crisis before peace talks

KHARTOUM, Aug 21, 2004 (Xinhua) — The Sudanese government pledged to reach a political solution to the Darfur crisis on Saturday, two days before the scheduled peace talks with rebel groups.
“The (Sudanese) government sticks to its commitment to make humanitarian service available (for Darfurians) and push forward peace talks in Abuja, (capital of Nigeria),” Sudanese Vice President Ali Othman Taha said Saturday when meeting with a visiting delegation of Muslim organizations in North America.

Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo, the current African Union chairman, has invited the Sudanese government and the rebels to meet on the Darfur crisis in Abuja. Some regional power brokers, including Libyan leader Moamer Khadafi and Chad’s President Idriss Deby, will also attend the peace talks.

The one-day peace talks draw wide attention around the world as the UN Security Council has given the Sudanese government until Aug. 30 to disarm the Janjaweed, the Arab militias blamed for the conflicts in Darfur, or face international sanctions.

The Sudanese government said it is applying a UN-backed security plan and has called for the two rebel groups in Darfur to be confined to cantonments prior to demobilization.

The rebels have promised to send high-level delegations to Abuja, but said the conditions for political negotiations have not been met yet.

Belgian Minister of Defense Andre Flahaut paid a visit to the North Darfur state and met with the governor there on Saturday. The governor reiterated the Sudanese government’s willingness and determination to resolve the Darfur crisis through negotiations.

He also urged the international community to adopt a just, neutral attitude on the issue instead of putting all the pressure on the Sudanese government, which has sent a wrong signal to the rebel groups and complicated the problem.

Meanwhile, the Sudanese government and the UN migration agency on Saturday signed an agreement ensuring displaced Darfurians’ right of return.

According to the deal, more than 1 million people displaced by the 18-month Darfur conflict will have the right to voluntarily return home when they feel the situation is secure enough to do so.

British Foreign Minister Jack Straw will visit Sudan next Monday and may go to Darfur on Tuesday, the British government announced earlier.

Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot is also expected to arrive in Sudan later next week on behalf of the rotating European Union presidency.

Darfur, which has witnessed an 18-month conflict between the Janjaweed and two African rebel groups, with over 10,000 people killed and 1 million people displaced, is considered the site of the worst humanitarian crisis by the United Nations.