Darfur rebel group threatens to walk out of Sudan peace talks

CAIRO, Sept 13 (AFP) — One of the two rebel groups in Darfur on Monday threatened to walk out of peace talks unless the Sudanese government quickly presented a viable plan to end the conflict in the western region.

“The negotiations are at a crossroads,” said Mahgub Hussein, a spokesman for the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM).

“They could collapse at any moment if the Sudanese government is incapable of presenting a positive vision for a political solution,” he told AFP by telephone from London.

Asked if this meant that the SLM was threatening to pull out of the African Union-sponsored talks currently under way in the Nigerian capital Abuja, Hussein replied: “Yes.”

“The government position continues to be a security and military vision. It has not budged an iota in its positions, which we categorically refuse.”

The talks, due to resume on Tuesday, have made little progress since they began three weeks ago, bogging down first on what should be on the agenda and then again last week when the Khartoum delegation rejected AU proposals on re-establishing security in Darfur.

The region in western Sudan has been the theatre of civil war since February last year when black African rebels rose up against the Arab-dominated government to demand an end to the political and economic marginalisation of the area.

Khartoum gave an Arab militia group, the Janjaweed, a free rein to crack down on the rebel groups. The ensuing violence has claimed some 50,000 lives and forced 1.4 million people from their homes, according to the United Nations.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday told a Senate hearing that evidence compiled by the United States led to the conclusion that genocide had been committed in Darfur, a charge Khartoum rejects.

Washington is trying to get the UN Security Council to pass a new resolution to stop the violence, but has come up against resistance from, among others, permanent veto-wielding members China and Russia.

European Union foreign ministers on Monday renewed a threat of sanctions against the Sudanese government unless it takes action to disarm militias threatening refugees in the Darfur region.