Darfur peace talks resume in Nigerian capital
ABUJA, Sept 10 (AFP) — Talks to restore peace to Sudan’s Darfur region resumed here Friday, a day after the United States declared events in the western part of Sudan a genocide, to consider a draft protocol on the key issue of security.
But rebels said they were not optimistic that any tangible progress would be made.
“We are continuing with the general review of the document on security this morning. The discussion started on Thursday to consider the positions of the two parties,” the spokesman for the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) Ahmed Hussain Adam told AFP before the session.
He said the two rebel groups — JEM and the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) — were not hopeful that the talks, which began three weeks ago, would make much progress.
“We are not optimistic at all. This is because the government of Sudan is not showing genuine desire for peace to return to Darfur,” he said.
The AU-brokered peace talks started on August 23 but have since then made little headway.
First the two sides — the rebels and the Khartoum government — could not agree on an agenda, and then the talks hit another hurdle Wednesday when the government delegation rejected a draft protocol on the security and disarmament.
The talks resumed after African mediators held separate meetings with the two sides and assured them that their observations and comments would be accommodated in a new draft.
An estimated 50,000 people have been killed and 1.4 million uprooted in Darfur since Khartoum responded to a February 2003 rebel uprising by giving a proxy militia, the Janjaweed, a free rein to crack down on the rebels.
The Janjaweed, which is allegedly backed and sometimes fights alongside the Sudanese army, have been accused of committing atrocities and human rights abuses in Darfur, described on Thursday by US Secretary of State Colin Powell as “genocide.”
Powell told a Senate hearing that evidence compiled by the United States “concluded that genocide has been committed in Darfur and the government of Sudan and the Janjaweed bear responsibility, and that genocide may still be occurring.”