Sudan UN envoy positive on southern talks
By Opheera McDoom
KHARTOUM, Oct 21 (Reuters) – Peace talks to end Sudan’s southern civil war could produce a breakthrough agreement by the end of the year, but the outlook for talks on the western Darfur conflict is uncertain, the U.N. envoy to Sudan said on Thursday.
Jan Pronk was upbeat on the negotiations in Kenya on the southern conflict that has cost two million lives, but much more cautious about the talks on Darfur, which the United Nations terms the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Pronk said agreement seemed within reach at the south Sudan talks being held in the Kenyan town of Naivasha.
“I’m very positive about the talks. The mood is good … and I’m very much looking forward to the signing of the peace agreement before the end of this year, which could be a major breakthrough,” he told reporters.
The southern conflict, now the longest-running civil war in Africa, erupted in 1983 and broadly pits Sudan’s Islamist government in Khartoum against the mainly Christian, animist south, complicated by issues of oil, ethnicity and ideology.
The 20-month-old Darfur conflict has forced more than 1.5 million people from their homes. Talks were due to resume in the Nigerian capital on Thursday but were delayed as members of the main rebel delegation were held up by a transport mix-up.
“Of course we are much more shy about what is going on there (in Abuja) because there’s not yet much preparation,” he said.
“But I hope that the positive outcome of the talks in (Kenya) will have some influence on the mood in the Abuja talks, which are very important because without a political agreement in Abuja there is no possibility to solve the problem in Darfur.”
Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said the talks would be difficult but could make progress on some issues.
After years of skirmishes between Arab nomads and mainly non-Arab farmers over scarce resources in arid Darfur, rebels took up arms early last year accusing Khartoum of using Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, to loot and burn non-Arab villages, a charge Khartoum denies.
The U.N. estimates up to 70,000 people have died from malnutrition and disease since March. There are no reliable estimates for those killed in the violence, which the United States has branded genocide.
U.N. REPORT
Pronk, Ismail and other officials will hold the last joint implementation meeting on Thursday night before Pronk is due to give his monthly report to the U.N. Security Council on Darfur.
The United Nations has threatened Sudan with possible sanctions if it does not stop the violence in Darfur.
Ismail said the agenda would include rebel violations of the ceasefire, the laying of mines, child conscripts and rebel attacks on government targets outside Darfur.
Pronk said the decision to send more than 3,000 extra African Union monitors of a crumbling ceasefire in Darfur could help achieve security in the remote region.
The AU has about 150 monitors with about 300 troops to protect them in Darfur, but analysts say they are swamped with reports of ceasefire violations and cannot cope.
The United States hopes to air-lift more AU monitors into Darfur in the next week.
Ismail said the AU, in consultation with the government, had decided on an expanded mandate for the troops, previously based in six major towns to observe ceasefire violations only.
“They can accompany the IDPs (internally displaced people) outside the camps to restore their confidence in security. They can check any allegations against the practices of the Sudanese police and can also station earlier in areas where the IDPs are going to return,” Ismail said.