ABUJA, 17 September 2004 — Rebels from Sudan’s Darfur region said yesterday they were still undecided about continuing in peace talks after discussions with African Union mediators.

The Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), one of Darfur’s two rebel groups at the talks in the Nigerian capital Abuja, said mediators had given them until Friday to decide if they wanted to continue with negotiations.

“We requested more time to consult with our commanders on the ground ... The AU special envoy gave us up to midday tomorrow to take our final decision,” said SLM spokesman Abduljabal Dosa, after meeting mediators yesterday.

Darfur’s other rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) said on Wednesday the talks had collapsed, but a day later said it would await the SLM’s decision before making any further pronouncements on the negotiations.

“We have not quit the talks. We are still in Abuja and we are waiting to see if the talks will continue or that there will be an official declaration that they have collapsed,” said Ahmad Muhammad Tugod, negotiator for the JEM.

The three-week-old discussions are aimed at finding a political solution to the Darfur situation.

Rebels have so far refused to sign a humanitarian agreement to improve aid agencies’ access to more than a million displaced Darfuris, saying Khartoum must disarm its Arab Janjaweed militia allies and let more AU troops and monitors into the region.

The government has said rebels must start moving into containment areas before it will begin disarming the Janjaweed militiamen. The rebels have so far refused to agree to this.

Sudanese government officials said they still hoped for a compromise deal on addressing the humanitarian crisis. The government is under pressure to show the UN Security Council the talks had achieved something.

“We are waiting for the AU to get back to us. We are ready to continue with negotiations and to sign the (humanitarian) protocol that has been agreed upon,” said Sudan’s Ambassador to Nigeria Abdel Rahim Khalil.

The Darfur conflict, which the United Nations estimates has killed up to 50,000 people, began in February 2003 after years of low-level fighting between Arabs and African farmers over scarce resources.

The rebels argue that they have been subjugated by the Khartoum government for decades and say their people are still under attack by Janjaweed militiamen. The government denies it supports the Janjaweed, calling them outlaws.

Western government have been pushing for economic and political sanctions against Sudan over Darfur, arguing the government has not been doing enough to guarantee the security of civilians in the vast arid western province.

The United States has called the violence in Darfur genocide, a position echoed by the European Parliament.

“(The European Parliament) calls on the UN Security Council to consider a global arms embargo on (Sudan) and other targeted sanctions against those responsible for massive abuses of human rights and other atrocities,” the assembly said in a motion passed last week, saying the bloodshed was “tantamount to genocide”.

Sudanese officials say some of the rebels have been stalling in the Abuja talks to put Khartoum under greater pressure to make concessions, under the threat of sanctions.

“The attitude of JEM has a lot to do with the (US) stance on the issue. They are counting on the support of the US and the international community to have their way,” Khalil said.

Sudan has rejected a US-sponsored UN Security Council draft resolution on the situation in Darfur, intended to put political and economic pressure on Khartoum.