ABUJA, 23 June 2005 — A Chadian delegation to peace talks where the African Union wants to end a devastating conflict in Sudan’s neighboring Darfur province yesterday accused rebels there of scheming to scapegoat Chad.
One top envoy from N’djamena, Ahmad Allam Mi, said the team “deplores a misinformation campaign accusing Chad of being behind obstacles to the smooth running” of the AU’s long bid to end a war between the Khartoum government and two rebel groups in Darfur that has killed or displaced millions.
Allam Mi, a diplomat and adviser to Chad’s President Idriss Deby, told AFP the delegation “denounces scheming intended to use Chad as a scapegoat ... to ends contrary to the mediators’ mandate, exclusively about settling the conflict.”
His target was the rebel Justice and Equality Movement, one of the two rebel groups in Darfur alongside the Sudan Liberation Movement, which has said Chad is biased and Tuesday stepped up the rhetoric to accuse it of “committing genocide”.
Since Chad’s delegation arrived in the Nigerian capital on June 15 to join the AU as co-mediators, every bid to get all participants round one table to end a war that has killed at least 180,000 people and displaced 2.4 million has stalled.
A spokesman for the AU mediators, Sam Ibo, said four hours of separate talks on a draft declaration of principle (DoP) key to a settlement were held on Tuesday, but a planned plenary session was postponed by 24 hours and the Chad issue had been taken up by heads of state.
The DoP, the latest stage in a process that stalled for months over truce violations by both sides before resuming on June 10, lays the groundwork for a political deal, in the wake of military measures and ahead of discussion of power sharing and the distribution of wealth. The declaration reaffirms principles of unity, sovereignty, the territorial integrity of Sudan, federalism in the biggest country in Africa, respect of diversity and the end of impunity for those committing serious human rights offences.
The SLM, after objecting, has agreed to Chad’s role in the talks, but the JEM has adopted an increasingly hard line. And in Eritrea’s capital Asmara, a JEM spokesman said forces from the movement had taken part in a completely separate joint rebel offensive in east Sudan launched on Monday.
