US, Britain urge Darfur factions to sign up to peace

The US and Britain have dispatched high ranking officials to urge warring factions in Sudan’s Darfur region to pick up their pens and sign a peace accord in the Nigerian capital Abuja before midnight on Tuesday. The African Union deadline for the signature of a draft 85-page peace document expires after a 48-hour extension at midnight and US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick and Brtain’s Development Secretary Hilary Benn have both travelled to Abuja to guard against further slippages. “Abuja negotiators must keep their eyes on the vital goal - achieving peace in Darfur so that Darfurians can return to their homes and live in a secure peace,” read a statement issued by the US Embassy in Abuja on Tuesday. “Much good work has been done and should not be allowed to slip by.” Some 200,000 Sudanese have fled the fighting in Darfur and sought shelter in isolated desert refugee camps in eastern Chad. The crisis has been described as the world’s worst humanitarian disaster, by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. The UN estimates more than 200,000 people have been killed as a result of worsening violence between the Sudanese government and rebel movements, the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). The rebels accuse Khartoum of neglect and oppression of the people of Darfur in south west Sudan and of sponsoring violent attacks by militia group the Janjawid on civilians, including women and children. Khartoum denies the allegations. Efforts to end the fighting in Darfur received a publicity boost in the US over the weekend when thousands of people, including A-list Hollywood celebrities, gathered in the US capital Washington DC to call for peace. "If we turn our heads and look away and hope that it'll all disappear, then they will, all of them - an entire generation of people," film actor George Clooney said. "This is in fact the first genocide of the 21st century." The draft deal has already been accepted by the Sudanese government, but rejected by the rebels. Observers say that Sudan has played the situation well, emerging as pro-peace while the rebels are increasingly looking like war-mongers despite the fact that both sides have repeatedly violated an existing cease-fire. Under the draft deal, Khartoum would have to disarm militias and work to rebuild the impoverished and war-shattered Darfur region. The rebels would gain “a senior presidential adviser” position in the government but that falls short of their demands for the vice-presidency.