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 Daily Independent Online.
* Monday, August 09, 2004.
Sudanese govt,
rebels to hold peace talks in Abuja
By
Onche Odeh
Foreign Affairs Reporter
(With
Agency Report)
Reports
from the African Union (AU) secretariat have hinted that the government
of Sudan and two rebel groups fighting in the western Darfur region may
have agreed to convene a peace talks in Abuja on August 23.
The
Chairman of the AU, President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is at the forefront
of mediating peace in parts of the African region, would hold discussions
with the Sudanese government and the rebel factions, Justice and Equality
Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) in Abuja.
This
peace move is coming on the heels of a recent report that Nigeria and
Rwanda are to contribute 2,000 soldiers to the peace keeping team to the
war-torn Sudanese settlement.
Obasanjo
and his other counterparts in the AU have been engrossed in series of
meetings to find a lasting solution to the crisis that has continued to
ravage the African continent.
Delegates
from Sudan's government and from the two western Darfur rebel groups are
due to take part in the peace talks.
Previous
talks in July in Ethiopia failed when Sudanese government rejected
rebels’ conditions for continuing the negotiations, including disarming
the pro-government militia known as Janjaweed.
The
rebels, whose leaders are based in Eritrea, also said they did not want
the talks to take place in Ethiopia that has a frosty relations with
Eritrea and good one with Sudan. Obasanjo, who will host the peace talks,
has also said he is trying to get a larger African peacekeeping force
into Western Sudan, as well as more international aid.
"With
what we have on the ground now, it appears we must have an additional
force of protection. For that force, we will call on our development
partners to help in the area of logistics and we are calling on the
international community to help with humanitarian supplies for
Darfur," Obasanjo said. The Sudanese government said the team of
about 100
AU
cease-fire monitors is enough to ensure stability, adding that foreign
troops should be allowed to come in only if the people welcome them.
Both
rebel groups have been fighting the government in Sudan's remote western
region for the past 19 months.
Fighting
in Darfur and raids by militia drawn from the Arab population, known as
Janjaweed, have uprooted more than one million African villagers and
precipitated a humanitarian crisis that the United Nations has called the
world's worst.
Only
recently, the Sudanese army described a UN resolution that handed down a
30-day ultimatum to end the crisis in Darfur a declaration of war, hence
a pledge to only abide by the earlier 90-day resolution.
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