Sudan’s Darfur peace talks overshadowed by fighting

By Camillus Eboh

ABUJA, Dec 13 (Reuters) – Peace talks on Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region got under way Monday in Nigeria’s capital, overshadowed by fighting between rebels and government forces in the vast desert area.

A rebel of the JEM.

Prospects for achieving a political solution to the two-year-old conflict, which has displaced 1.6 million people and killed tens of thousands, were dim as rebels traded accusations with the government over cease-fire violations.

“The Sudanese government has launched a big campaign against our positions. If that continues we will not be able to talk,” said Tajeddin Bashir Niam, a senior member of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement.

The government has said it cannot pull back its forces because they are needed to keep roads open to deliver aid to the remote region dotted with makeshift refugee camps.

The African Union set an ambitious agenda for agreement at the latest round of Abuja talks which technically opened on Friday, but said cease-fire violations were poisoning the atmosphere. The two sides began their first formal session on Monday morning.

The African Union has set a Dec. 22 deadline to conclude talks on a declaration of principles including power sharing, wealth sharing, security, demobilization and reintegration. But some observers believe talks may not get past the first item on the agenda — to review the situation on the ground in Darfur.

Earlier agreements on aid and disarmament have been violated by both sides, leading the United Nations to say that Darfur was sliding into anarchy. The rebels took up arms against the government in early 2003 in protest at what they said was Khartoum’s marginalization of the western region.

About 1.6 million Darfuris have fled their homes since February 2003 in fear of attack by Arab militiamen who were mobilized by the government as auxiliaries in a campaign to crush the rebellion.

But Khartoum says the attacks are carried out by outlaws and denies responsibility for their actions.

The United States, which has failed to get sanctions imposed on the government, has called the campaign genocide.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said last week Darfur was plagued by banditry, rape and village burnings with 2.3 million people in desperate need of aid.

The 53-member African Union has sent 900 cease-fire monitors to Darfur, a region the size of France, and expects to reach the full complement of 3,300 troops by the end of the year.

Human rights campaigners have complained of the slow pace of deployment amid the renewed fighting