Peace talks on Darfur end without reaching a deal

More than three weeks of peace talks between the Sudanese government and two rebel groups from the country’s Darfur region ended on Wednesday without agreement on any of the key points discussed, rebel and government delegates said. Both sides said they had accepted proposals by the African Union (AU) to suspend the talks and resume further negotiations in three or four weeks time. In a last ditch effort to bestow the Abuja talks with at least one instance of success, Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo pressured the Sudanese government and rebel delegates on Tuesday night to sign a humanitarian protocol negotiated in the first 10 days of talks. The accord would have made it easier for international aid agencies to carry out a massive relief effort in Darfur, where 1.4 million people have been displaced from their homes and hunger and disease stalk the land. While Khartoum delegation agreed immediately to sign the humanitarian protocol, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebel factions asked to be given until Wednesday to make a decision. They eventually refused to sign it. “We as JEM have decided not to sign the humanitarian protocol. The talks have collapsed already,” JEM spokesman Ahmed Tugod told IRIN. Tugod said key demands of the rebels, including the immediate disarming of the pro-government Janjawid militia and a probe of the Janjawid for alleged crimes against humanity, had not been accepted. Therefore, he said, “it didn’t make sense to sign”. The rebels also rejected proposals by AU mediators that their own forces be grouped at cantonment sites prior to the eventual disarmament of all fighting groups in Darfur. SLA delegates were involved in meetings all day and did not announce their own position. But they did not sign the humanitarian protocol either. Sudan's Minister of Agriculture, Majzoub al-Khalifa Ahmad, who headed the government delegation, accused the rebels of frustrating the mediation efforts of AU officials and Obasanjo, the current AU chairman. “It is their fault that the talks collapsed,” Ahmad told IRIN. He alleged that interference from countries outside Africa, especially the United States, was a major reason for the failure of the talks. He particularly cited last week’s declaration by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell that genocide had been committed in Darfur as a factor that had hardened rebel intransigence. Despite the failure of the talks, he said the Sudan government would continue to pursue efforts to improve the humanitarian and security situation in Darfur. The United Nations estimates more than 1.2 million people have been displaced from their homes within Darfur and a further 200,000 have fled as refugees to neighbouring Chad. It reckons that 50,000 people have been killed in the 19 months of fighting. The UN World Health Organisation said earlier this week that 10,000 people were continuing to die each month in Darfur, mostly of hunger and disease. The United Nations has demanded that the Sudanese government rein in the Janjawid, an Arab militia force mounted on horses and camels, which it accuses of committing atrocities against unarmed civilians in Darfur. Khartoum has been widely accused of using the Janjawid to attack black African farmers in Darfur and drive them from their villages. “Disarming the Janjawid is a continuing process, but the rebels also need to be placed in safe areas,” said Ahmad. “The rebels are also attacking civilians, just like the Janjawid - they’re the same,” he added. The UN Security Council gave the Sudanese government a 30-day ultimatum on July 30 to address the humanitarian situation in Darfur and disarm the Janjawid. But this expired with Secretary General Kofi Annan telling the Security Council that Khartoum had not done enough. Since then, the United States has been lobbying for a new Security Council resolution threatening sanctions against Sudan's 320,000 barrel per day oil exports, if it fails to rein in the Janjawid and improve security and humanitarian access in Darfur.