?France condemns SLA rebel attack in Sudan’s Darfur ?

PARIS, Nov 26, 2004 (KUNA) — The French government on Friday reiterated its ‏‏condemnation of an attack by the rebel Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA), which ‏led to the death of 20 policemen and soldiers and jeopardized the ongoing ‏‏peace process in Abuja, Nigeria.
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A statement from the French Foreign Ministry, the second this week to ‏‏address the attack on Tawila in the war-torn Darfur, called the SLA attack “a ‏‏flagrant violation of the cease-fire agreement concluded” on April 8 in ‏‏neighboring Chad.‏

‏The attack also violates the subsequent protocols of November 9, which set ‏‏the stage for disarmament of rebel groups and the reining in of militias by ‏‏Khartoum, France said, basing its second condemnation on a similar view issued ‏‏by the European Union in Brussels.‏

‏The government militias operating in Darfur have been largely blamed by the ‏‏United Nations and non-governmental organizations for attacks against ‏‏civilians there and for the forced displacement of over one million people, ‏‏some of whom have fled across the border with Chad.‏

‏Tens of thousands are believed to have died in the fighting and the ‏‏subsequent militia operations against villages in Darfur.‏

‏”France expects the parties in Darfur to show proof of the greatest ‏‏restraint and that they refrain from all additional violence,” Foreign ‏‏Ministry spokeswoman Cecile Pozzo di Borgo said in Paris.‏

‏Only the negotiations that will resume in Abuja on December 10 are the way ‏‏to settle the problems and bring “a global response” in Darfur, the French ‏‏statement said.