Sudan, rebels start talks
2004-07-16 09:00
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - At the start of peace talks in Sudan's Darfur crisis, African mediators said escalation of the fighting that already has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than a million people could not succeed.
"Let's give chance to peace. Let's begin political dialogue," African Union Commission chairperson Alpha Oumar Konare told delegates to the talks on Thursday.
There was "no success in military escalation", Konare said as Sudanese officials and black African rebels began deliberations.
Officially absent from the talks, but very much at issue, is the shadowy Arab militia responsible - with government backing, critics say - for the bulk of the killings and expulsions, creating what UN officials have termed the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
The AU-sponsored talks between the government and the two rebel groups - the Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Army - have no set agenda, said AU spokesperson Desmond Orjiako.
But the fate of the displaced - nearly 200 000 of whom have fled to neighbouring Chad - and a largely ignored cease-fire signed in April are expected to dominate, he said.
The Chad government is also mediating in the talks, which were expected to continue Friday, and possibly longer.
The meeting follows a major diplomatic push by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who both visited the region earlier this month to press Sudan to end the violence.
"The objective of the political dialogue is to find a comprehensive solution to the crisis in Darfur," said Mohamed Sahnoun, Annan's special envoy to Africa and an observer at Thursday's talks.
Nomadic Arab tribes have long been in conflict with their African farming neighbours over Darfur's dwindling resources - particularly water and usable land. The tensions exploded into violence when two African rebel groups took up arms in February 2003 over what they regard as unjust treatment by the government in their struggle with Arab countrymen.
Since then, a calamity has unfolded in Darfur as armed bands of herders, most of them Arabs, have torched village after village, driving more than a million black Africans from their homes.
UN officials, the rebels and refugees have accused the government of backing the mostly Arab militias, known as the Janjaweed, with aeroplanes, helicopter gunships and vehicles. The government denies any complicity in the attacks.
The United Nations estimates up to 30 000 people have died in the militia attacks and the rebellion that triggered them, but some analysts say the toll could be much higher.
Meanwhile, as delegates met in Addis, Libya signed an agreement with the UN World Food Programme to open a corridor for food deliveries to some 175 000 Sudanese refugees in Chad, which borders Libya.
The first shipment of 450 metric tons of wheat flour from Switzerland is expected to arrive in the Libyan port of Benghazi in August.
- AP