Darfur peace talks crucial - US
2010-03-10 17:04
Nairobi - The coming week of direct talks between the Sudanese government and Darfur rebel groups in Doha will be crucial to the prospects of a lasting peace deal, the US envoy for Sudan said on Wednesday.
On his way to the Qatari capital, where the central Khartoum government and the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) rebel group are holding direct peace talks, Scott Gration said it was vital to make quick and significant progress before Darfur's fate gets overshadowed by the elections.
"If we can get a jump on a Darfur peace agreement, then we should, because there's going to be a lot of things keeping us from focusing on Darfur," the US special envoy told reporters in Nairobi.
Sudan is due to hold presidential, legislative and regional polls on April 11, the first multi-party elections in a quarter of a century and a key milestone in the implementation of the 2005 north-south peace agreement.
"There's a little window," he said, referring to the coming days of negotiations in Qatar, after which "there's not going to be a lot of bandwidth for what is going on in Darfur".
Unifying rebel groups
On February 23, Khartoum and Jem signed a cease-fire and a framework agreement for peace in the western Sudanese region, but several other important rebel factions have rejected the deal
The Darfur conflict has claimed about 300 000 lives and displaced 2.7 million people, according to UN figures, since it erupted in February 2003. Khartoum puts the death toll at 10 000.
Gration said he believed the deal had enough high-level support not to suffer the same fate as previous agreements and added that one of the first objectives of the talks in Doha would be to unify the rebel camp.
"I think this is really one of the first very serious agreements that we have. This one follows on the heels of some rapprochement between Chad and Sudan," he said.
He also stressed that Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir and his Chadian counterpart, Idriss Deby, were personally involved in the deal. "Because of that, there's a better chance this one will stick."
He urged all holdout rebel groups to join the talks in Doha, including the factions of the Sudan Liberation Army led by Abdelwahid Nur.
The framework agreement "has to be turned into a more formalised agreement... If there is going to be a comprehensive and lasting peace in Darfur, all rebel groups need to be involved."