A Sudan government-sponsored initiative on Darfur will urge a ceasefire in the ravaged region and call on both sides to prepare for talks, according to draft recommendations seen by Agence France-Presse on Tuesday.
The final recommendations of the so-called people’s initiative, which was boycotted by rebel groups fighting the government, are expected to lay a foundation for a possible peace conference in Qatar by the end of 2008.
Sudan is pressing a diplomatic offensive to persuade the United Nations Security Council to delay possible proceedings against President Omar al-Bashir, who could face an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes in Darfur.
Convincing the international community that Sudan is serious about promoting peace in Darfur, where the government has been accused of brutally repressing a nearly six-year insurgency, has been key to the people’s initiative.
Sixty-seven pages of draft recommendations seen by an AFP reporter focus on the need to stop hostilities and declare a ceasefire, although one senior official emphasised that the document is still being edited.
”The people’s initiative forum calls upon the government to cease fire and also calls upon Darfur rebel groups to cease fire so as to reform the situation for dialogue,” says the document.
It also recommends that a vice-president be appointed for all Darfur, calling on north and south Sudan to amend accordingly the 2005 peace agreement, which made the leader of the semi-autonomous south a vice-president.
The forum also calls on the government to release Darfuris arrested on political charges and asks the judicial system to review cases of those who have been accused or sentenced on issues related to Darfur.
It makes no explicit reference to the dozens of suspected members of Darfur rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement, who have been put on trial and sentenced to death for staging an unprecedented attack on the capital in May.
The draft recommendations are to be finalised and formally ratified at a conference, expected to be chaired by Beshir, in Khartoum on Wednesday.
Numerous initiatives have tried and failed to bring peace to Sudan’s western region of Darfur, where rebels rose up against Khartoum in 2003, complaining of marginalisation. — AFP
