Darfur peace talks inch forward despite deadlock over security

ABUJA, Nov 1 (AFP) — African Union mediators met separately with Sudanese government envoys and the leaders of the uprising in the strife-torn region of Darfur in a bid to hammer out a deal on demilitarising the conflict.

Rwandan troops arrive in Darfur October 30, 2004 as part of an expanded African Union peacekeeping effort in the violent region of western Sudan.

But the warring parties’ positions appeared as far apart as ever despite optimism from delegates that it might be possible to find a joint position on security in the western region before a meeting of both sides on Tuesday.

Sudan’s ambassador to Nigeria told AFP that the insurgents had asked for “unrealistic things” while a spokesman for the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) said his group would refuse to compromise in its demands.

The two sides in the 20-month-old civil war have been meeting in Abuja since October 23 to thrash out a political settlement to a brutal conflict which has driven 1.5 million from their homes and left tens of thousands dead.

Face-to-face talks on a political settlement were due to restart later on Monday after a stalemate over the security crisis in the province and repeated accusations of ceasefire violations stymied last week’s discussions.

AU officials said they thought that it was a step forward that both sides had now put forward their own proposals for what should be put into a deal on securing a shaky six-month ceasefire and taking the guns out of the conflict.

“Since the two sides are still talking we can say that the talks are progressing,” said AU political advisor Doubou Niang.

But it was hard to imagine what kind of a document the mediators could come up with overnight which would satisfy both parties.

“The rebels are calling for some unrealistic things like a no-fly zone or the total withdrawal of all government troops from Darfur,” complained the Sudanese ambassador to Nigeria, Abdul Rahim Khalil.

And asked whether the rebels might be prepared to drop some of their preconditions, JEM spokesman Ahmed Hussain Adam was clear.

“We cannot compromise, our people in Darfur need protection and assistance, for that we need conditions. We are waiting for a new proposal from the AU, maybe later this evening,” he told AFP.

Late on Sunday the future of the talks as a whole had hung in the balance when the second rebel movement involved in the talks, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), accused the government of bombing a village in northern Darfur.

The group threatened to walk out over Saturday’s alleged airstrike, which Adam said had killed several civilians, and called for the international community to step up pressure on Khartoum.

On Monday, government spokesman Ibrahim Mohammed branded the allegation “spurious”, accused the SLM of political grandstanding insisted that there had been no government ceasefire breaches in more than two months.

Niang also downplayed the allegation and an AU official who said he had spoken late Sunday to the commander of the embryonic AU truce-monitoring force in Darfur said the unit had heard of no such attack.

Darfur’s rebels allege that the Arab-led regime in Khartoum has marginalised and persecuted their region’s black African communities and are demanding autonomy and a greater share in Sudan’s oil wealth.