Sudanese troops to withdraw from Darfur region – Officials

N’DJAMENA, Chad, Feb 18, 2005 (AP) — Sudanese troops have two weeks to pull out of positions they seized after the government signed an oft-violated cease-fire with rebels in its western Darfur region, officials said Friday.

A Sudanese soldier guards the Zam-Zam displaced camp (AFP).

The move is intended to ease tensions in the troubled region and help the adversaries negotiate a political settlement to the civil war without distractions from the battlefield, said Adam Ali Shogar, spokesman of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army.

The Sudanese government has agreed to meet the deadline and its forces will be replaced by African troops deployed in the region ravaged by a two-year conflict, said Gen. Mahamat Ali Abdallah, head of the commission that monitors the April truce.

The commission includes representatives of Sudan ‘s government, the two main rebels groups in Darfur, Chad, the African Union, United Nations, European Union and the United States.

“The government agreed to withdraw its troops in one week and the commission will verify that in two weeks,” Shogar told The Associated Press. “The countdown began yesterday.”

The commission did not fix the date for the next round of peace talks as expected. Mediators will consult with all sides to ensure that they are fully committed to negotiating a political settlement before fixing the date, Abdallah and Shogar said.

Three previous rounds of talks and the cease-fire agreement have failed to calm Darfur, which plunged into violent conflict in February 2003.

The most recent round of Darfur peace talks began Dec. 11, but rebels boycotted meetings with government delegates two days later, alleging a new government offensive. The talks broke down within weeks.

The commission also rejected Sudan ‘s plans on disarming the dreaded pro-government militia, known as the Janjaweed, because the scheme was too vague, Abdallah said.

He said Sudan agreed to present a new plan for the disarmament of its allies, who are accused of carrying out the bulk of atrocities in Darfur.

On Thursday, the Janjaweed attacked Duma – some 40 kilometers north of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur -burning four villages in the raid that continued Friday, Shogar said.

“I don’t have any details about casualties and the number of people forced to flee the villages, but more than 150 houses have been burned,” Shogar said.

Meanwhile, a committee of the African Union’s Pan-African Parliament has finished its three-month assessment of the Darfur conflict and will present a report in March, said its chairman, Ugandan lawmaker Abdu Katuntu, in a news conference.

The Pan-African Parliament, made up of members of national parliaments in Africa, advises the AU’s heads of state meetings and the AU’s executive arm, but its advice is not binding on them. It sits in South Africa.

Darfur has been torn by conflict since early 2003, when rebels of ethnic African tribes took up arms, complaining of discrimination by the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum. A pro-government Arab militia launched a counterinsurgency in which thousands were killed. An estimated 2 million people have been displaced.