New Darfur mediator 'promising'
2008-06-30 08:16
Sharm El-Sheikh - Sudanese rebels
hope the new international mediator for Darfur has the power to
wring concessions from the Khartoum government to kick start a
stalled peace process and help end suffering on the ground.
Speaking to Reuters at the weekend, officials from the main
rebel factions in the five-year-old conflict bemoaned the lack
of progress under previous mediators. They said they were
crossing their fingers that Burkina Faso's Foreign Minister
Djibril Bassolet could make a difference.
Rebel leaders criticised previous United
Nations and African Union mediators, saying they had rarely made
contact with the rebel groups and had failed to push them and
the government to the negotiating table to end the fighting
which international experts said had claimed 200 000 lives.
Minni Arcua Minnawi, the only rebel leader to sign a peace
deal with Khartoum, on Sunday urged African leaders meeting in
the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh to promote peace
talks with the remaining factions and end the bloodshed.
Speaking by telephone from Darfur, he said previous United
Nations and African Union (AU) mediators had completely failed.
'We would have preferred a Western mediator'
Diplomats at the UN said on Friday that Bassolet had been
chosen as the new joint UN-AU mediator for Darfur, but his
appointment must still be confirmed.
Some rebels voiced concern that Bassolet might not have
enough international clout to succeed.
"We would have preferred a Western mediator," said Khalil
Ibrahim, head of the most militarily powerful rebel group, the
Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).
JEM rebels attacked
Khartoum last month, the first time rebels had brought their
battle to the capital. They had since been repelled.
If confirmed, Bassolet would replace the dual negotiating
team of Salim Ahmed Salim from the AU and his UN counterpart
Jan Eliasson.
The envoys blamed stalled talks on continued fighting
- mostly between JEM and the government - and rising tensions
between Sudan and neighbouring Chad, who accused each other of
supporting rebels trying to overthrow their governments.
- Reuters