Darfur peace talks adjourned as violence sends more fleeing in west Sudan

ABUJA, Sept 10 (AFP) — Slow-moving talks aimed at restoring peace in Sudan’s Darfur region were adjourned, with African Union mediators complaining that they were having difficulty getting the two sides to set aside their differences on key issues and work towards peace.

Meanwhile, as the talks stalled over the sensitive issues of security and disarmament, British based relief agency Oxfam said some 30,000 people have poured into one of its refugee camps in Darfur in the past few days, fleeing the violence that has continued unabated in the far west of Sudan.

“Literally tens of thousands of people have poured into the camp in recent days and the flow still hasn’t stopped,” Oxfam said.

“Oxfam is working flat out to try and provide for the thousands of newly displaced and vulnerable people, but what we need most is an end to the insecurity,” Oxfam quoted aid worker Gemma Swart as saying from the camp.

AU spokesman Assane Ba announced the four-day adjournment of the talks in Abuja, which were supposed to focus on the question of security in Darfur on Friday.

“The talks have been put forward until Tuesday because the mediators have been having difficulties in getting the two sides to resolve their differences,” he said

The Sudanese government and two rebel groups — the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) — sat down for the African Union-brokered talks on August 23 but have made little progress to end the 19-month conflict that has claimed some 50,000 lives and displaced some 1.4 million.

The war began as an uprising by black African rebel groups in February last year to protest at the alleged political and economic marginalisation of their region.

Khartoum’s response was to unleash a proxy militia, the Janjaweed, on the region, arming them, backing them and giving them a free rein to crush the rebellion.

On Thursday US Secretary of State Colin 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.”

His comments came as the United States pursued a new Security Council resolution to authorize an expanded African Union security force in Darfur.

The resolution, like a similar measure passed July 30, demands that Khartoum disarm the Janjaweed and take other steps to end the violence or face international sanctions.

However the 15-nation UN Security Council has emerged divided over the proposed resolution, with Russia, Pakistan and especially China voicing objections to the draft.

The Sudanese government has rejected the accusations of genocide and said the US stance would deepen the deadlock at the talks.

“To consider what is happening in Darfur as genocide does not represent the international consensus and sends a negative signal to the other side who are negotiating with the government,” Khartoum’s ambassador to Washington, Khedr Haroun, was quoted as saying in a letter published by the press in the Sudanese capital.

He warned that Powell’s declaration would prolong the conflict and hamper peace talks under way in Nigeria.

Sudan’s finance minister Ahmed Hassan al-Zubeir was also angered by Powell’s declaration, which he defiantly rejected, saying at an AU summit in Burkina Faso on Thursday: “We will prove that… the conflict in Sudan is an internal tribal problem and it will be for the national government to solve this problem.”

The rebels, on the other hand, called Powell’s indictment “a welcome development.”

“This has been our position all along that the Sudanese government and its militia, the Janjaweed, have continued to kill innocent civilians in Darfur,” spokesman for the SLM, Abdelhafiz Mustafa Musa, told AFP Thursday.

“The verdict has debunked the lies, the insincerity of the Sudanese government to the peace process,” he said.

“They can no longer take the world for a ride any more. And for us in the rebel movements, it shows that we have been fighting a legitimate cause on behalf of our people,” Musa added.

JEM spokesman Ahmed Hussain Adam said the United Nations should punish the perpetrators of the genocide.

“Genocide is a crime against humanity according to UN conventions to which Sudan is a signatory. The law must apply and the Sudanese government and its proxy the Janjaweed must be disarmed and punished,” he said.

When the talks resume on Tuesday, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo will meet with the two sides to try to end the impasse.

AU spokesman Ba was hopeful Obasanjo’s intervention would succeed in moving the talks forward.

“We hope that the two sides will reach a compromise when they meet with President Obasanjo,” he said.