Darfur parties to sign protocols, meet Obasanjo

ABUJA, Nigeria, Nov 4, 2004 (PANA) — The Sudan peace talks in Nigeria may record a breakthrough of sorts Thursday if the parties make good their decision to sign the protocols on humanitarian and security issues, two of the four items on the agenda of the talks.

Mediators at the talks said the parties – the Sudanese government and the two main rebel groups, Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) – were billed to meet host President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria [photo], who is chairman of talks’ sponsor African Union (AU), later Thursday.

The meeting, coming a day after the conclusion of discussions on
the draft security protocol, would help chart the next line of
action at the talks, now in its second round, according to AU
spokesman Niang Boubou.

The humanitarian protocol was agreed during the first session of
the talks, which ended in September, but the rebels refused to
sign.

“We will be meeting with President Obasanjo this afternoon to
review the progress so far made and to discuss when this round of
talks would end,” Boubou told PANA in the Nigerian capital
Thursday.

“We do not need to meet with the parties again today, we received
all their inputs to the draft protocol and the Declaration of
Principles – a document that would guide discussions on the
political issues when the talks reconvene,” Boubou said.

At least one of the two rebel groups has said it will sign the
two protocols.

But in offering to sign the agreements, SLA gave four conditions:
that the timeframe for the disarmament of the pro-government
Janjaweed militia be made public; withdrawal of police around the
refugee camps; release by the government of all the names of
members of the Janjaweed; and a guarantee from the international
community that the Khartoum government would implement the
agreements.

“My group is now ready to sign the humanitarian and the security
protocols,” Magzoub Hussain, spokesman for SLA, told PANA in
Abuja Thursday.

“This is not because I am satisfied with the situation in my area
(Darfur) because the government still attacks my forces even
today,” he claimed, saying that the movement would sign the
documents to satisfy the international community that has been
pressuring it to do so.

He alleged that the Janjaweed and government forces attacked SLA
strongholds in Bagar, Umdrma, Katol, Ashma and Falata Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the smaller of the rebel groups, JEM, has threatened
to withdraw from the talks if the international community and the
AU failed (by Friday) to secure a firm commitment from the
Sudanese government that it would no longer attack its positions.

“We cannot be here talking and the government forces are
attacking our people and civilians, this shows the government is
not serious for talks,” JEM spokesman Ahmed Togodt said in Abuja
Thursday.

He accused the government of attacking Ahda, one of its
strongholds, Wednesday night.

Togodt said his movement would raise the issue at the meeting
with AU chairman Obasanjo.

After resuming the talks last month following a four-week break,
the parties have intensified efforts to find ways of ending 20
months of fighting in the western Darfur region, which the UN
said had killed 70,000 people and sent another 1.5 million
fleeing from their homes.

The second round of the talks, now in its second week, is
expected to end next week.