Sudan will stick to ceasefire pact for Darfur, ease humanitarian aid
By GILBERT DA COSTA, Associated Press Writer
ABUJA, Nigeria, Sep 17, 2004 (AP) — Sudan pledged Friday to stick to the terms of an oft-violated cease-fire agreement for its civil-war wracked Darfur region and said it will allow humanitarian agencies unfettered access to the area where tens of thousands have died.
After African Union-hosted peace talks in Nigeria collapsed without agreement, the remaining government negotiators issued a statement saying Sudan would uphold an AU-brokered April cease-fire, an accord both rebels and government forces in a 19-month conflict are accused of repeatedly breaking.
Sudan pledges “strict adherence to the cease-fire on land and air, and the commitment to secure and facilitate humanitarian access without any restriction, and make the life in Darfur easier and better,” the statement said.
The government promised to open roads to civilians and allow free movement of peoples, according to the statement, issued at the talks’ site in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.
Delegates from two insurgencies in Sudan’s western Darfur region weren’t immediately available for comment.
Sudan’s government and government-allied Arab militia are accused by the United Nations, United States and others of waging a campaign of killing, torture, rape and arson to drive out Darfur’s non-Arab farmers.
The United States and some aid groups say genocide has already been committed in Darfur, a charge the government denies. Tens of thousands are already dead in Darfur and 1.2 million people have fled their homes, including 200,000 in refugee camps in neighboring Chad.
The violence broke out with the emergence of two rebel groups after February 2003.
The United Nations calls it the worst humanitarian crisis anywhere.
African leaders hoped to get all sides to sign an agreement easing relief aid in areas under their control, but the three-week-old talks broke down Wednesday amid disagreements over how to bring security to Darfur. The government and one rebel group said no accord was likely soon.
The Abuja talks, launched Aug. 23, could recommence in the coming weeks, officials for the 52-nation union say. Earlier talks held in Ethiopia broke down in July.
Rebels say existing accords already provide for relief efforts, and that it is impossible to do more before the pro-government Janjaweed militia are disarmed.
Sudan’s government _ under increasingly harsh international criticism and some threat of international sanctions _ reiterated charges that the U.S. criticism had boosted rebel intransigence at the talks.
“Statements made by senior officials of the USA poisoned the talks environment and sent wrong signals to the rebels who immediately stiffened their positions and contracted sudden disinterest on the talks and discussions and adopted a negative attitude,” the government statement said.