A second day of peace talks on the crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region broke off early on Tuesday, with rebels refusing face-to-face talks with the government until the African Union meets separately with both sides to draft an agenda.
Delegates said the AU-brokered talks in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, will resume on Wednesday.
Sudan Liberation Army spokesperson Mahgoub Hussain said his rebel group will only hold face-to-face discussions with the government if an agenda for the talks is agreed upon first. He said he wants the AU, which is chairing the talks, to meet separately with each side to draft an agenda.
On Monday, planned talks on key security issues — including the disarmament of rebels and pro-government militias — stalled for similar reasons.
“It’s the same problem … we need to know the agenda,” Hussain said.
The talks opened on Monday with each side accusing the other of violating a ceasefire repeatedly over the past several days.
The Justice and Equality Movement accused the government of bombing towns and villages around the eastern Darfur town of Allaiat, a key base of the group. The bombings at the end of last week displaced about 7Â 000 people and cast doubt over the likely success of the talks, the rebel group said. It could give no details on casualties.
Sudanese officials said government forces were simply defending their own positions from rebel attack — not targeting civilians or insurgents.
The attack ended on Monday, after an AU ceasefire commission visited the area, the two sides said.
During the break in talks until Wednesday, AU officials and Western diplomats will meet separately with the government and the two rebel groups to try to make progress on the sensitive security issues keeping aid workers from reaching hundreds of thousands of refugees, said Ahmed Hussain Adam, spokesperson for the Justice and Equality Movement.
The crisis in Sudan’s western region began in February 2003 when rebels rose up against the Arab-dominated government, claiming discrimination in the distribution of scarce resources in the large, arid region. Major bloodshed ensued when pro-government militias called Janjaweed reacted by unleashing attacks on Darfur villages.
The United Nations has called Darfur the world’s worst humanitarian crisis and said it has claimed 70Â 000 lives since March, while 1,5-million have fled their homes since February 2003.
Federal solution
Before talks ended on Tuesday, Sudanese government spokesperson Ibrahim Mohammed Ibrahim said the government will propose giving different areas in Darfur more autonomy under a federal system that could include a Parliament for every region there.
“We see the solution to the political issue as lying in … the federal solution in Darfur,” he said.
An earlier round of peace talks in Nigeria ended without an agreement in September, after rebels refused to sign a humanitarian accord giving aid organisations wider access to refugees. Rebels insist they will not sign the already-drafted accord without an accompanying security agreement.
A key sticking point in reaching a deal on security is a government demand that the insurgents disarm. The Sudan Liberation Army and the smaller Justice and Equality Movement insist the Janjaweed must first be reined in and disarmed.
Justice and Equality Movement spokesperson Ahmed Hussain Adam said the two rebel groups will also push for a no-fly zone over Darfur.
The UN Security Council has said it will consider penalties such as sanctions if the Sudanese government fails to disarm all militia and restore peace.
Jan Pronk, the top UN envoy for Sudan, said the Security Council will meet in Nairobi, Kenya, from November 18 to 20 to discuss the crisis.
Last week, the AU agreed to increase its peacekeeping force in Darfur from 390 to 3Â 320. The larger force is expected to be fully deployed early next month.
Nigerian army spokesperson Colonel Mohammed Yusuf said 196 Nigerian peacekeeping troops are ready to leave for Darfur from their south-eastern base of Abak, and are just waiting for the AU to arrange their transport.
The arrival of extra AU ceasefire observers and troops in Darfur has become embroiled in an argument over procedures for filing flight plans. Sudan’s Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail told state radio on Tuesday his government has turned down a United States request to fly in the AU personnel from Rwanda, saying the request has to come from the AU.
In Addis Ababa, an AU official said it expects the US to provide its flight plans within 24 hours and it will promptly give them to Sudan.
Asked if the wrangling has delayed the arrival of AU observers, the US embassy in Khartoum said it had no comment. — Sapa-AP
UN Security Council to meet in Africa