No time set yet for formal plenary session on Darfur crisis: delegates

ABUJA, Dec 12 (AFP) — No time has yet been set for the start of a plenary session of African Union-sponsored peace negotiations on the crisis in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, delegates and mediators said Sunday.

Ahmed Tugod, spokesman for the Justice and Equality Movement. (AP).

AU spokesman Assane Ba told AFP that the non-arrival of some delegates of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), a rebel group, was a major cause for the delay in fixing the take-off time for the session.

SLM spokesman Abduljabar Doba confirmed that the arrival of some of the group’s delegates was still being awaited Sunday in the Nigerian capital Abuja.

Ahmed Tugod, spokesman for the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), another rebel group, said his movement was yet to be formally informed of when the plenary session of the talks would begin.

The Abuja talks are aimed at resolving a conflict which is estimated to have killed 70,000 people and driven more than a million from their homes since rebels rose up against the government in February 2003.

They accuse the Arab-led government of marginalising Darfur’s mainly black African population and demanding political autonomy and a greater share of Sudan’s oil wealth.

An opening ceremony for the talks took place here Saturday with delegates from the EU, the League of Arab States, the UN, the Sudanese and the Nigerian governments as well as the two main rebel groups in attendance.

Speaking at the occasion, the head of the Nigerian team to the talks, Steve Owolabi expressed the hope that the current negotiations would end by December 22.

“It is our hope that by December 22, we shall conclude our deliberation here in Abuja,” said Owolabi, who is the director of the African Affairs Department of the foreign ministry.

Both Owolabi and a representative of AU Commision chairman Alpha Oumar Konare condemned recent violations of a ceasefire agreement by all the parties to the conflict.

Signs that negotiations in Abuja would be tough started showing Saturday as the parties began accusing each other, immediately after the opening ceremony, of accord violations which they said could cripple the talks and the entire peace process.

A JEM spokesman shortly after the opening gave a veiled threat that his group could quit the talks.

“We would have second thoughts about the talks if the violations continue at the same level,” Bahar Ibrahim said.

Khartoum’s spokesman Majzoub Al-Khalifa Ahmed also dismissed the rebels’ demand for a troops withdrawal as “nonsense.”