Rebel group wants to continue peace talks for Sudan’s Darfur

ABUJA, Sept 16 (AFP) — The spokesman for the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), Abduljabbar Dofa, said Thursday that his rebel group wants stalled peace talks for the western Darfur region to be revived and to continue.

“We do not think the negotiations have failed and we are ready to continue the negotiations,” said Dofa on behalf of the main rebel group from Darfur, where a 19-month war has claimed some 50,000 lives and forced 1.4 million people from their homes.

The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), the other rebel group involved in the African Union-brokered talks which began three weeks ago but have struggled to make any progress, on Wednesday told AFP that the talks had collapsed.

Mohammed Ahmed Tugod, the chief negotiator for the JEM said “the negotiations have collapsed already because there are differences, strong differences between us and the Sudanese government.”

The head of the Sudanese delegation at the peace talks being held in the Nigerian capital, Majzoub al-Khalifa, said late Wednesday that Khartoum was ready to continue negotiations with the rebels.

The conflict in Darfur has been qualified by US Secretary of State Colin Powell as “genocide”, and the United States has held the government of Sudan and its proxy Janjaweed militia responsible.