Darfur Parleys in Limbo as Rebel Groups Cast Doubt

KHARTOUM, 14 August 2004 — Uncertainty prevailed yesterday over efforts to find a negotiated end to the armed conflict and humanitarian crisis in Sudan’s western Darfur region as rebels threatened to stay away from talks in Nigeria. At the same time a diplomat in N’djamena, the capital of neighboring Chad, said informal peace talks had begun in the Libyan town of Sirte amid growing confusion over who was taking the lead in mediation efforts.

Khartoum reaffirmed its willingness to take part in a new round of talks scheduled for Aug. 23 in the Nigerian capital Abuja, but the two main rebel groups left their attendance in doubt. “We are ready to go to any corner of the world to negotiate a settlement to the political issue in Darfur,” State Foreign Minister Naguib Al-Khair Abdel Wahab told AFP yesterday.

“We have responded positively to an invitation by the African Union for participation in the negotiation in the Nigerian capital on Aug. 23 and we believe this date still holds as we have not until now received a word from the AU on any change,” he said.

But a spokesman for Movement for Justice and Equality, one of the two Darfur rebel groups, told AFP Thursday the JEM would take part in the Abuja talks but wanted the date put back. “We shall take part, but there is a small problem,” said Col. Abdallah Abdel Kerim, military spokesman for the JEM. “On Aug. 23 we have other commitments with our partners and militants.”

The other group, the Sudan Liberation Army, took a similar stance when its leader Abdel Wahed Mohamed Ahmed Al-Nur told AFP on Wednesday that the timing was awkward. “The Aug. 23 date might not be convenient because the rainy season and the lack of transport make the movement of SLA representatives very difficult,” he said.

However, Chadian mediators insisted the talks would go ahead as planned despite the rebel complaints. “For the Chad-African Union mediation, there is no question of pushing back the Aug. 23 start date,” said a spokesman for the mediation team, Allami Ahmat, said in N’djamena.

Meanwhile, the diplomat in N’djamena told AFP on Thursday: “A reconciliation meeting has been in progress since yesterday evening at Sirte in Libya between the two (Darfur) rebel movements, the Sudanese government, the African Union and the Chadian foreign minister. “The Sirte meeting is informal and we are afraid it (the mediation process) will be taken over by (Libyan President Muammar) Qaddafi at the expense of the African Union,” the diplomat said.

Representatives of Chad, the United Nations, Nigeria and the AU also gathered in N’djamena on Thursday to prepare for the Ajuba meeting, a spokesman for the mediation process said.