Sudan peace talks deadlocked as rebels backtrack on agenda

ABUJA, Aug 24 (AFP) — The second day of the African Union’s Sudanese peace talks ended in deadlock after Darfur’s rebel groups rejected the agenda, backtracking on an earlier promise to push forward with negotiations.

Delegates will now return to the table on Wednesday to face the issue of the agenda, after rebel leaders objected to a reference to the “cantonment” or demobilisation of their armed forces.

“We need this issue specifically, the issue of cantonment, taken out of the agenda,” said Ahmed Mohammed Tugod, chief negotiator of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), as the talks broke up late Tuesday.

Abdel-Wahid Mohamed Ahmed el-Nur, leader of another Darfur rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) added: “We in the movement reject this agenda completely.”

Both men said that the rebel movements would stay in the talks, but would insist upon a new agenda.

The rebels’ belated decision was a blow to the African Union.

The Abuja conference’s host, President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, had earlier hailed the adoption by both sides of a broad agenda of humanitarian, security and political issues as a “first step in the right direction”.

But African officials and diplomats said that disagreement broke out shortly after the heads of state who had overseen the opening exchanges withdrew to allow the rebels and the Sudanese government to talk face-to-face.

The leader of the Sudanese government delegation, Agriculture Minister Majzoub al-Khalifa, was quick to seize the opportunity to embarrass his rivals.

“We adopted this agenda in front of President Obasanjo and AU and UN representatives this morning, and we are good to our word,” he told reporters. “We are very keen to continue these negotiations.”

The row over the demobilisation of rebel forces blocked any attempt to address the first item on the AU agenda; the humanitarian situation in Darfur.

The United Nations reports that more than 30,000 people have been killed and more than one million driven from their homes in 18 months of violence, much of it attacks on minority pro-rebel communities by government-backed militias.

AU leaders hope that if agreement on a political and security strategy can be reached it will reinforce efforts to enforce a ceasefire in the western Sudanese region and open the way for more substantive political talks.

The rebel groups, however, insist that they want the African Union to pressure Khartoum into granting Darfur and other regions greater autonomy and a better share of the national income. They are also refusing to disarm.

“How can we disarm our people? Without a proper security arrangement, these forces are our guarantee,” Ahmed el-Nur declared before the talks began.

The SLM and the JEM had sought amendments to the agenda to reinforce their demands for greater political and economic power for regions which they claim are marginalised by Khartoum.

“The regions should elect their own government and hold it to account. The regions should have their own constitutions,” JEM spokesman Ahmed Hussein Adam said. “We’re not seeking to separate from our country, we want to be equal.”

For their part, the Sudanese government accused the rebels of breaching an existing ceasefire agreement, including an attack at the weekend in which four Sudanese humanitarian workers and two journalists were allegedly kidnapped.

“Despite all that, we will continue to participate in these negotiations with the same spirit. Hopefully there will be an agreement between us and the rebel groups,” the government party’s spokesman Ibrahim Mohammed Ibrahim said.

There is no official date for the talks here to end — officials expect them to go on for several more days — but there is an implicit deadline in a looming United Nations security council ultimatum.

The UN has given Sudan until the end of the month to demonstrate that it is serious about restoring peace and security to Darfur, or face the prospect of sanctions. Meanwhile, international frustration is mounting.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw urged the Sudanese government Tuesday to “make a real effort” to ease the suffering caused by its bloody clampdown.

The AU is pushing Khartoum to allow the deployment of a 2,000-strong peacekeeping force of Nigerian and Rwandan troops, to protect aid shipments and oversee the cantonment and eventual demobilisation of the rebels.