Rebels still split on Darfur peace

Bowing to international pressure, the largest of Darfur’s three rebel groups on Friday agreed “with reservations” to sign on to a peace deal with Sudan, but two smaller groups are yet to get on board. After an all-night session on Thursday followed by a break and a new round of talks on Friday morning, the leader of the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) rebel faction, Minni Minnawi, said: “We are signing even though we have reservations about the document.” The government of Sudan too announced it would the latest amended version of an 85-page peace proposal submitted to the parties to the Darfur conflict by African Union (AU) negotiators. “We are signing despite our reservations, but in the end for everyone there is a win-win situation,” said the Sudanese delegation’s Majzoud Al-Khalifa. But two other rebel groups involved in the three-year crisis in the western Sudanese region walked out of the overnight talks despite changes worked into the original draft during this round of negotiations that began last weekend in the Nigerian capital. Mediators from Africa, Europe and the United States on Friday continued efforts to bring all rebel factions round, and began talks shortly after midday with Minnawi’s rival in the SLM/A, Abdul Wahid Mohamed el-Nur. And in New York late on Thursday, UN chief Kofi Annan said there was a need “to press the parties to seize the moment and make an agreement, a real agreement, that will stand the test of time on the ground,” The three rebel groups have been meeting in Abuja with representatives from Khartoum to try to close two years of efforts to hammer out a peace deal for the Darfur region where some 200,000 lives have been lost and more than two million people displaced. And amid outcry over what is being described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, a bevy of high-level officials have converged on Abuja to try to wrest concessions from both sides. But there were long faces when a midnight deadline lapsed without a deal and overnight talks ended in discord. With three deadlines to reach a deal already missed this week, AU officials overseeing the two-year peace bid did not say when the talks might now end. “We are not going to sign,” said a spokesman for the SLM/A faction headed by el-Nur, which is smaller than Minnawi’s but believed by some analysts to control more territory. “We need this document improved,” he said. But a spokesman for Minnawi’s group, Saifaldin Haroun, told reporters that the time was ripe to end the fighting. “We suffer too much and we believe it is time to do something so that we can end the tragedy in Darfur,” he said. “We lose innocent people, we are losing family, friends, brothers and sisters in this unjustified war. This is the time to make a decision.” “If we refuse to sign this document we lose the support of the international community,” he also said. The rebels took up arms in 2003 accusing the government of discrimination and neglect against black African Darfurians and have been pressing for a Darfurian to be appointed as vice-president of Sudan, as well as for greater autonomy and the integration of rebels into the army. The issue of political power was essential, said Ahmed Tugod, chief negotiator for the smallest of the three rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). “It is difficult for us to accept this kind of document unless fundamental changes are made,” he said. “We talk about the need to have a region in this specific time before the elections, and also the importance of the representation of the people of Darfur in the Presidency, the executive and the legislative arms, the civil service and other institutions.” However he welcomed as a step forward US proposals to integrate rebel fighters into the Sudanese army and speedily disarm Janjawid militia who are accused of waging a terror campaign across the region. The US proposals were submitted at the talks by US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick. Among other foreign officials directly involved in the talks to end the Darfur conflict are Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, AU chairman and Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso and Britain’s Secretary for International Development Hilary Benn. “Given the energy and time put in by the African and international community to end the plight of the people of Darfur, it will be a sad day if peace is left to falter,” said AU chief mediator Salim Ahmed Salim. Zoellick meanwhile said on Friday that “it is now time for the leadership of these movements to agree to the terms of the proposals.” The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland is travelling to Sudan this weekend and will head to south Darfur and briefly to Chad to assess the humanitarian situation. He has warned that funds are drying up for aid in Darfur and that the UN soon will be forced to cut daily food rations in half.