Sudan government, rebels agree on protection of civilians in Darfur

ABUJA, Sept 1 (AFP) — The Sudanese government and rebels agreed on an African Union mediated plan to protect the Darfur region’s 1.2 million displaced people from hunger, rape and murder, the parties said.

“At this meeting, we came to the agreement on this protocol on humanitarian issues. So this is the end of this part of the talks. We will continue tomorrow (Thursday) on security issues,” the leader of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), Ahmed Mohammed Tugod, told journalists.

“We have reached an agreement by the end of today and we believe this is a step forward, it is timely and opportune because the people in Darfur actually need to have some sort of tranquillity,” Sudan’s minister of humanitarian affairs, Mohammed Yusuf, said.

“The Darfur people need some sort of understanding that things are moving forward. So this agreement is sending the right signal in this direction,” he said.

“We are happy with this conclusion (agreement) … we can now make another effort forward,” said Yusuf, who was mandated by the chief negotiator for the Sudanese government at the talks, Majzoub al-Khalifa, to address journalists at the end of the talks.

Although an agreement has been reached by the two parties on the humanitarian issue, the accord would be formally signed at the end of talks on the security issues, the next item on the agenda of the peace meeting, the

“The agreement will be signed when we conclude talks on the second issue on the agenda, that is the security issue. There is a link between both agreements — humanitarian and security issues in Darfur,” the minister said.

Besides humanitarian and security issues, the other issues on the agenda of the talks are political, economic and social affairs.

On the UN report indicting the government in Khartoum over tardiness in implementing the Security Council decision and violation of the ceasefire accord, the minister said that his government had performed well within the 30-day deadline set for it.

The UN Security Council gave Sudan a 30-day deadline on July 30 to disarm its proxy Arab militia, the Janjaweed, withdraw its regular forces from around the camps of the displaced and ensure free access to the area for aid agencies.

“In the understanding with the UN secretary-general, the action plan was for 90 days. But the Security Council shortened the time to 30 days. Therefore, within the 30 days, I think the efforts (of the Sudanese government) were quite marvellous … remarkable,” Yusuf said.

On the reported UN plan to have a permanent peacekeeping force in Darfur, the minister said that the matter has to be discussed between the Khartoum government and the African Union.

“That is a unilateral decision (by the UN). It will be discussed between Sudan and the AU. We will see in what form it is going to be presented, the modalities to have the peacekeepers and how to manage the whole operation. We will also consider the merits and demerits of the idea,” he said.

“Violations to ceasefire are always from all sides, and not on one side. The violations will really come to a halt if a peace agreement is signed,” he said.

He said that the Sudanese government was totally confident that the UN would not impose sanctions on it.

“I am 100 percent sure that what has been done is quite satisfactory and I do not think that the UN will go to the direction of applying any sanctions on Sudan,” said the minister.

But the JEM leader retorted, accusing the Sudanese government of not honouring its commitments to the international community on the resolution of the crisis in Darfur.

“They have done nothing so far to meet the commitments which they made with the international community. We in the two (rebel) movements therefore welcome any African troops to protect our civilians in Darfur,” Tugod said.

Talks on security issues in Darfur, including the implementation of the Ndjamena ceasefire agreement, disarmament of the Janjaweed and other militias, cantonment of the armed elements of the movements and release of prisoners and detainees was to begin Thursday at 10 am (09h00 gmt).