Darfur talks adjourned
2004-09-17 20:26
Abuja - African Union-sponsored talks on restoring peace to Sudan's western Darfur region adjourned for one month on Friday to give negotiators more time to resolve disagreements on the key issues, delegates said.
"We are going on recess and during the recess, we are being promised that the AU represented by the current chairperson, will undertake consultations with the two parties and also with the international partners who have shown interest in the issue of Darfur," Sudan's deputy foreign minister Najeib Abdulwahab told AFP.
When asked when the talks would resume, he said: "In a month's time", without being specific.
The three-week-old talks between the Sudanese government and two rebel groups - Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) - have yet to make meaningful progress because of disagreements on the key issues of security and disarmament.
The Sudanese government in a statement on Friday blamed the United States and rebel groups for stalling the talks, especially for refusing to sign the agreement on the humanitarian issue.
"It is regrettable that while the negotiators were fully engaged in the consideration of the security issue, and while they were making real progress, statements made by senior officials of the USA poisoned the talks environment and sent wrong signals to the rebels who immediately stiffened their positions," the statement said.
Last week, US Secretary of State Colin Powell described the situation in Darfur as "a genocide" and blamed the Sudanese government and its proxy Arab militia Janjaweed for it.
The Khartoum government said it had confidence in the AU-brokered peace and was ready to resume whenever called upon to do so.
"The government of the Sudan maintains that the talks led by the African Union and assisted by other concerned parties, will pave the way for a final, durable and just resolution of the conflict," it added.
Earlier, an AU mediator had said the talks would be suspended Friday "whether or not the rebels sign the protocol on humanitarian affair".
50 000 killed
The war in Darfur broke out in February 2003 when rebels rose up against Khartoum to demand an end to the political and economic marginalisation of their region, peopled mainly by black Africans.
Khartoum's response was to back an Arab militia group, known as the Janjaweed, and give it a free rein to crack down on the rebels and their backers. In the 19 months since the conflict began, some 50 000 people have been killed, according to UN estimates.
The Janjaweed has been accused of conducting a scorched earth policy in Darfur, of ethnic cleansing and even, in tandem with Khartoum, of genocide - an accusation made last week by US Secretary of State Colin Powell.
The United States has brought a resolution on Darfur before the UN Security Council, threatening to impose sanctions on Sudan's oil industry if Khartoum does not take steps to end the carnage in its western region.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Thursday called on the Security Council to act immediately on the resolution.
China has threatened to veto the resolution, which presses Khartoum to rein in the Janjaweed and calls for an expanded force of African Union monitors in Darfur.