Firm Darfur truce possible at talks-US official

CAIRO, March 2 (Reuters) – Sudan’s government and Darfur rebels have a “reasonable chance” of securing an effective ceasefire at African Union-sponsored talks due to start this month, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday.

Rwandan soldiers guard the funeral of a man killed by Janjaweed in Al Fasher, North Darfur State March 1, 2005. (Reuters).

The official also told Reuters he was encouraged by the Khartoum government’s apparent commitment to implementing a separate north-south peace deal signed early this year, which ended more than two decades of civil war in the south.

“I think there is a reasonable chance of getting a firm ceasefire given the African Union’s new approach,” the official, who declined to be named, told Reuters by telephone after meeting top Sudanese officials in Khartoum.

He was referring to the next round of Darfur talks in the Nigerian capital Abuja. The AU has said it is holding separate talks ahead of the negotiations with both sides of the conflict to find common ground on the agenda and a declaration of principles.

The Abuja talks will begin when some consensus has been found, most likely mid- to end-March, the AU says.

The U.S. official also said the implementation of the north-south peace deal which ended Africa’s longest civil war in Sudan’s south would aid the Darfur process.

“This will show the (Darfur) rebels that something negotiated by the government will be honoured,” he said.

Rebels have often said they doubt the government’s commitment to a shaky ceasefire agreed in April last year. The African Union says both sides have violated the truce. Tens of thousands have been killed in the fighting and almost 2 million have fled their homes in Darfur.

“I’m convinced that the government will honour the provisions in this (southern deal) of the percentages of government,” the official said.

To explain the lack of progress at previous talks in Abuja, he said the government had not done a good job in clarifying its new proposals at the Abuja talks, which had caused distrust from the rebel side.

But at a recent meeting in the Chadian capital N’Djamena of the ceasefire commission, he said rebels sent low-level delegations.

“The lack of high-level rebel representation at N’Djamena shows their lack of unity,” he added.

After years of tribal conflict, rebels took up arms in Darfur in early 2003, accusing the government of neglect. The international community says the government then armed Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, to fight the rebels.

The Janjaweed stand accused of widespread looting, killing, rape and burning of villages, but Khartoum calls them outlaws.