ABUJA, 1 May 2006 — Rebels from the war-torn Sudanese region of Darfur met with African Union (AU) mediators here yesterday to officially reject a peace deal as the deadline for peace negotiations loomed.
Two anti-Khartoum rebel movements, the Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), had earlier issued statements that they had taken a “joint position” not to sign the AU-brokered peace accord.
“This document is not acceptable to us, and we are not going to go by it or sign it,” JEM spokesman Ahmed Hussain said.
“We will submit our joint position on this issue to the AU mediation team this afternoon.” Hopes for the peace agreement appeared to have been dashed as the meeting started, after the AU responded that the content of the deal would not change.
Saifaldin Haroun, spokesman for the main faction of the SLM, said: “We will not sign this agreement. We will only sign the agreement that includes all our demands, certainly not this one. This is the position of the two movements.” The rebel statements came just hours before a deadline set by the AU and the United Nations to complete peace negotiations to end a conflict, which has killed 300,000 people and displaced 2.4 million in three years of fighting.
A special representative of the UN secretary general for Sudan, Jan Pronk, and international mediators also attended yesterday’s meeting, which started at 4:45 p.m.
After just over an hour participants agreed to meet for a full session later in the day, one of them told AFP. But AU spokesman Noureddine Mezni said, “For us in the mediation team, our assignment is over at 12:00 midnight.” “As mediators, the AU deadline and document will not change,” the AU spokesman said in reaction to the rebel statements.
“Our position is supported by the UN Security Council and if the agreement is not signed they know what to do,” he added.
Haroun said earlier that the SLM had received the Arabic version of the draft peace accord only Saturday.
The Sudanese government delegation from Khartoum yesterday reiterated its readiness to sign the peace accord. “The (Sudanese) government commits itself fully to apply the accord in good faith,” it said in a statement.
