Qatar offers to help Darfur
2008-10-14 20:43
Cairo - A Qatari minister said on Tuesday that his oil-rich emirate plans to host a reconciliation conference on ending the conflict in the war-torn region of Darfur in Sudan.
Qatar has played a prominent role in mediating Middle East conflicts in recent years. In May, it brokered a deal between Lebanese rival factions that ended a two-year long political stand-off, and the latest bid reflects the tiny Gulf state's desire to continue such efforts.
Qatar's minister of state for foreign affairs, Ahmed Bin Abdallah al-Mahmoud, announced the plan after meetings at the Arab League in Cairo, a visit that came on the heels of his weeklong tour of Sudan.
Al-Mahmoud said consultations are under way to set a date for the conference, to be held in the Qatari capital, Doha. But he cautioned the gathering would need good preparation to succeed.
Past efforts to bring Sudanese rebels to a peace conference with the government side have failed.
"We are working to prepare an appropriate ground for the conference to bring it to a success," he told reporters in Cairo.
The 22-member Arab League asked Qatar in July to spearhead a joint Arab effort to end the Darfur crisis.
The effort followed genocide charges raised against Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands.
Initiative for peace
In Cairo, al-Mahmoud described the talks he held with Sudanese officials on the Qatari bid as "positive".
Arabs hope that brokering a peace settlement in Darfur would halt the ICC's efforts to bring al-Bashir to justice. On Monday, the League said the genocide charges against Sudan's al-Bashir were not acceptable and undermines that country's sovereignty.
The UN and the AU have welcomed Qatar's initiative for peace in Darfur. Both organisations have deployed some 9 000 peacekeepers in Darfur as part of a joint mission.
But Egypt said Sudan's neighbours should play a key role in any initiative on Darfur.
"There should be co-ordination among different efforts and neighbouring countries should be involved," Hossam Zaki, spokesperson for Egypt's foreign ministry told the state MENA news agency.
So far, key Darfur rebel groups have rejected efforts to negotiate a deal with Khartoum government before it stops violence against civilians in the ravaged region.
Many of the worst atrocities in the war have been blamed on the janjaweed militia of Arab nomads allied with the government.
Meanwhile, the Sudanese government has announced its own, national unity conference on Darfur, to be convened on Thursday in Khartoum. Darfur's rebel groups have refused to attend that gathering.
The Darfur conflict began in early 2003 when ethnic African rebels took up arms against Sudan's Arab-dominated central government, accusing it of discrimination. Up to 300 000 people have been killed and more than 2.5 million have been chased from their homes since the fighting began.
- AP