Darfur peace accord rejected by rebels

Bashir Adigun

ABUJA, Nigeria — Darfur rebels have bickered among themselves, violated a cease-fire and even been accused of attacking peacekeepers. Now they risk being seen as standing in the way of an agreement to stop the bloodshed in one of the saddest places in the world.

With a midnight Tuesday deadline approaching after more than two years of talks here, Sudan’s government said it was ready to sign a peace accord with the rebels from the western Sudanese region of Darfur.

But the rebels, suspicious of the government’s intentions, rejected the agreement proposed by the African Union. They said it did not guarantee enough political power for Darfur or provide enough detail on how it would be implemented.

“We are not ready to sign until the Sudanese give concessions to our demands,” said Ahmed Hussein, a spokesman for one of two rebel factions. In rejecting the African Union draft, he said he was speaking on behalf of both his Justice and Equality Movement and the other main rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Movement.

Mediators who proposed the peace deal had originally demanded the rebels and Sudan’s government accept it by Sunday. As negotiations bogged down, they extended talks for 48 hours and called on the rebels to accept what they may see as an imperfect document.

“You have made many sacrifices in your struggle for your people,” African Union mediator Salim Ahmed Salim told the rebels in a statement Monday. “Now is the time for you to show leadership and make the compromises necessary for peace, for the sake of the people of Darfur.”

In accepting the draft, the Sudanese government agreed to disarm militia it is accused of unleashing on Darfur civilians, commit millions of dollars to rebuilding a region devastated by poverty and war, and compensate victims of the fighting, Salim said.

Fighting in Darfur has killed tens of thousands and forced millions more from their homes. Both sides have been repeatedly accused of violating a cease-fire, including attacks on African Union peacekeepers. Infighting among the rebels has complicated the talks.

The rebel groups are fighting the government for more control over their region, though they have also battled each other for territory. The Justice and Equality Movement is closely linked to Islamic fundamentalists. The Sudan Liberation Movement — which started fighting for more governing autonomy for Darfur in February 2003 — split in November, and both factions have sent representatives to the talks.

“Probably at the mega level they’re fighting the same government for the same reasons, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll all agree on what the solutions are,” said John Ashworth, who advises church peace groups on Sudan.

Still, he said the rebels may have cause to worry about the eagerness of the government to sign the African Union deal.

“I’m not at all surprised that the rebels are not accepting the peace deal. Why should they? It’s never going to be implemented,” Ashworth said. “The government is just going to undermine it every way they can.”

He said the Sudanese government has followed through in name only on similar agreements in the south of the country, where another war ended with a peace agreement last January.

African Union mediator Salim said his team tried to strike a compromise on rebel demands for autonomy.

The peace agreement would create a transitional authority for the region including rebel representatives, and proposes that the people of Darfur vote by 2010 on whether to create a single geographical entity out of the three current Darfur states.

A unified Darfur would presumably have more political weight, and the rebels had demanded its creation by presidential decree.

The rebels had also demanded that a third vice president, from Darfur, be added to the national government. The compromise draft called for the president to include a Darfur official, initially nominated by the rebels, among his top advisers.

Salim said the expert would have “all the attributes of a vice president, except the name,” and noted Sudan’s constitution, drafted under the treaty that ended the north-south war, permits only two vice presidents.

Monday marked the first day of the World Food Program’s cut in food rations by half for about 3 million refugees in Darfur because of a shortage of money. Antonia Paradela, a spokeswoman, said they will know by the end of the week what the impact of the cuts are.

Darfur has increasingly drawn the world’s attention. The U.S. State Department said Monday that it was sending its number two official, Deputy Secretary Robert Zoellick, to Nigeria in an attempt to break the stalemate.

The move followed weekend demonstrations in Washington and other U.S. cities to demand that the U.S. government act more decisively to end the suffering in Darfur.

Decades of low-level tribal clashes over land and water in Darfur erupted into large-scale violence in early 2003 when the rebels took up arms. The central government is accused of responding by unleashing Arab tribal militias known as Janjaweed to murder and rape civilians and lay waste to villages. Sudan denies backing the Janjaweed.

Associated Press correspondent Mohamed Osman contributed to this report from Khartoum, Sudan.