Delegates at Darfur summit disagree over security
THERE seems to be no end yet to the resolution of the Darfur crisis as delegates at peace talks yesterday in Abuja disagreed over ceasefire violations.
The first full session of the conference, which focused on political dialogue, broke up in the morning after less than an hour, when rebel envoys asked for more time to prepare, and parallel talks on the security situation in Darfur remained deadlocked.
"The road to peace is very rough," admitted Mahgoub Hussain, spokesman for the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), which came to Abuja capital hoping to win greater autonomy and government funding for Darfur.
"How can we be happy to be at the negotiating table here in Abuja while on a daily basis we receive reports of assaults, killings, rape, looting and aerial bombardments against our people by government forces?" he said.
"This is not acceptable to us and that is why we insist on firm commitments on improvements in the humanitarian and security situation in Darfur before any meaningful progress can be made in the negotiations," he added.
Meanwhile, the Sudanese Embassy in Abuja released a statement rehashing week-old allegations that rebel forces had attacked and robbed 123 Nigerian Muslim pilgrims passing through Darfur on their way over land to Mecca.
AU officials said that political talks would restart today and that mediators would meet separately with rebel and government delegates to hear their views on security before attempting to draw up a draft agreement.
But there was still no sign of the two sides coming together, nor of them singing up to a draft humanitarian protocol which, if implemented, would have enhanced the protection of Darfur's 1.5 million displaced people.
Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed by disease, hunger and militia violence since February last year when two rebel movements - the SLM and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) -- rose against the Sudanese government.
The insurgents accuse the Arab-led central government of persecuting and discriminating against Darfur's black African tribes and have called for more freedom and a greater share of Sudan's oil revenues.
Government's response was to unleash the Janjaweed, an Arab mounted militia, which the United Nations UN and human rights monitors have since accused of atrocities against civilians. The United States (U.S.) has spoken of genocide.
The UN Security Council is due to meet next month on the issue and African leaders are keen to demonstrate that the continent can handle its own crises before western powers make good their threats to impose economic sanctions.
There are two main elements to the African Union plan: the Abuja peace talks, which is expected to last at least three more weeks, and the deployment over the same period of a 3,250-strong African truce-monitoring force.
