'Nur should attend peace talks'

2007-10-22 22:34

Khartoum - France may take measures against a key Darfur rebel leader living in Paris if he continues to refuse to attend peace talks later this week, a French human rights envoy said in Sudan on Monday.

Secretary of State for Human Rights, Rama Yade, told journalists in Khartoum: "We will do everything to convince Abdel Wahed Nur to attend peace negotiations in Libya.

"If he refuses we will draw conclusions," she said, without elaborating.

Nur heads a faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement that has declined to attend Darfur peace talks due to start in the Libyan city of Sirte on Friday until a bolstered United Nations-African Union force is deployed in the troubled region.

'We're prepared to introduce sanctions'

The United States, which has said that genocide is taking place in Darfur, last month said that those refusing to attend the talks in Libya could face sanctions.

US deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said earlier: "If an important rebel group chooses not to attend, not to send a representative, that should not be a cost-free choice.

"We are prepared to put sanctions. The notion of sanctions is not limited to the (Khartoum) government alone. It also relates to rebel groups' leaders."

However, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner in September deplored Nur's refusal to take part in the talks but stressed that he could not expel him.

Yade, who arrived in Sudan on Sunday, was to head to Darfur later on Monday where she said "the humanitarian situation continues to worsen... The situation is still critical, there is still immense suffering."

She said that according to the UN's children's fund UNICEF, 75 children die in Darfur every day.

"We know that women are still raped, we strongly condemn those responsible for serious crimes such as crimes against humanity and war crimes, they must be punished."

More than two million people have fled their homes and at least 200 000 have died from the combined effects of famine and conflict since Khartoum enlisted militia allies to put down a revolt in 2003, according to the United Nations.

- SAPA