Sudan to talk peace

ADDIS ABABA – The government of Sudan and two rebel groups fighting in the western Darfur region have agreed to peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria on August 23, the African Union said yesterday.

AU spokesman Adam Thiam said the group’s chairman, Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, would mediate discussions between the Sudanese government, the Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Army in the Nigerian capital. Both rebel groups have been fighting government forces and Arab militia, who the rebels say are backed by Khartoum, in Sudan’s remote western region for the past 19 months.Fighting in Darfur and raids by the militias, known as Janjaweed, have uprooted more than one million non-Arab villagers and precipitated a humanitarian crisis the United Nations has called the worst in the world.Sudanese foreign minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said the government would participate in the talks without conditions.”The Khartoum government will put forward a paper to the Abuja meeting about Sudan’s vision for dealing with the political crisis,” he told reporters in Cairo.There was no direct word from the rebels confirming they would attend but Thiam said they would be there.”The talks will be a continuation of the political dialogue started in Addis Ababa on July 15 under the auspices of the African Union,” he said from Addis Ababa, where the AU’s headquarters are located.The July talks failed when the rebels set six conditions for negotiations and Khartoum immediately rejected them.The chief demands included Sudan’s demilitarisation of Darfur and access to an inquiry into genocide charges.Obasanjo and AU Commission Chairman Alpha Konare, former president of Mali, worked with Sudan and the rebels to set up the talks, Thiam said.The 53-member AU is proposing to send up to 2 000 troops to protect its ceasefire monitors in Darfur and to serve as peacekeepers, but has yet to send a formal request to Khartoum.- Nampa-ReutersBoth rebel groups have been fighting government forces and Arab militia, who the rebels say are backed by Khartoum, in Sudan’s remote western region for the past 19 months.Fighting in Darfur and raids by the militias, known as Janjaweed, have uprooted more than one million non-Arab villagers and precipitated a humanitarian crisis the United Nations has called the worst in the world.Sudanese foreign minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said the government would participate in the talks without conditions.”The Khartoum government will put forward a paper to the Abuja meeting about Sudan’s vision for dealing with the political crisis,” he told reporters in Cairo.There was no direct word from the rebels confirming they would attend but Thiam said they would be there.”The talks will be a continuation of the political dialogue started in Addis Ababa on July 15 under the auspices of the African Union,” he said from Addis Ababa, where the AU’s headquarters are located.The July talks failed when the rebels set six conditions for negotiations and Khartoum immediately rejected them.The chief demands included Sudan’s demilitarisation of Darfur and access to an inquiry into genocide charges.Obasanjo and AU Commission Chairman Alpha Konare, former president of Mali, worked with Sudan and the rebels to set up the talks, Thiam said.The 53-member AU is proposing to send up to 2 000 troops to protect its ceasefire monitors in Darfur and to serve as peacekeepers, but has yet to send a formal request to Khartoum.- Nampa-Reuters