Daily Independent Online.
*
Tuesday, August 24, 2004.
Sudan:
Abuja peace talks deadlocked
By Tony Eluemunor
and Onyekachi Eze, Abuja
After nearly five
hours of heated deliberations on Monday, the peace talks mediated by the
African Union (AU) between the government of Sudan and the two rebel groups
- the Justice and Equity Movement (JEM) and the Sudanese Liberation
Army/Movement (SLM/A) - on the conflict in Darfur seemed to have been
deadlocked.
The parley, convened
at the instance of AU Chairman, President Olusegun Obasanjo, was poorly
attended. Apart from the president of Congo Brazzaville, no other head of
government of the 54 African countries attended. The Sudanese president was
represented by his Agriculture Minister Majdoub el-Khalifa.
Although the meeting
continues this morning, Ahmed Mohammed Tugod, JEM head of delegation, tied the
group’s continued participation to the agenda to be prepared by the
committee set up for the purpose.
“It depends
on the agenda. We are coming at 8
o’clock to find out exactly what the agenda is. Then we will decide
whether we will continue or not,” he stated.
He accused the
Sudanese government of not being committed to the resolution of the crisis,
alleging that it is trying “to squeeze the problem and make it a local
one which they want to solve in a local conference between the people of
Darfur. Actually, the problem is a political problem, not a security one. And
as far as it remains a political problem, it requires a political
solution”.
Tugod traced the root
of the war to an attempt by the Islamic regime in
Sundan to Islamise the
country. He alleged that “behind this policy of Islamisation is the
policy of Arabisation adopted by the Sudanese government and forced by the Arab
local people against the African origin tribe of Western Darfur”.
However, leader of the
Sudanese government delegation El-Khalifa described the meeting as fruitful.
The
all-stakeholders’ meeting, held at the ECOWAS Secretariat in Abuja, is
being attended by the fighting groups, head of the AU Commission and former Malian President Alpha Konare.
Other attendees
are President Denis Sassou-Nguesso
of Congo Brazaville, Vice President Atiku Abubakar, and former military Head of State Abdusalami Abubakar as
well as representatives of the United Nations Secretary General, Arab League, the Libyan leader, Chadian
leader, Eritrean leader. Representatives of the Ugandan Government are also
present.
In his opening
address, Obasanjo urged the groups to utilise the talks to end the fighting,
reminding them of the bad publicity and image-battering Africa is suffering
because of the conflict in Sudan and other troubled spots of Africa.
“Africa cannot continue to be the problem child
of the world, known for its pitiable pictures shown around the world of
miserable-looking children and women, dying of malnutrition and diseases as a
result of wars and internal crises”, he said.
