Global Policy Forum

By Crispian Balmer

The two main rebel groups fighting in Sudan's Darfur region announced on Friday they were willing to resume stalled peace talks, dropping their previous conditions for new negotiations. "We make a solemn commitment to resume as soon as possible the Abuja negotiations under the auspices of the African Union without preconditions," the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) said in a statement.

The SLA and JEM made their announcement after holding "frank consultations" with the 53-nation African Union at Rome's Community of Sant'Egidio, a Roman Catholic organisation that has brokered a number of African peace treaties. No date was set for new talks, but the rebel groups said they hoped the various parties would get together "in the coming days" at Sant'Egidio to try to strengthen the peace process.

The two rebel groups took up arms in early 2003 accusing the Sudanese government of neglect and discrimination against non-Arabs in Sudan's vast western region. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than 2 million driven from their homes into teeming refugee camps inside Sudan and across the border in Chad.

A ceasefire signed in April 2004 has not held and peace talks sponsored by the African Union in Abuja, Nigeria, have stalled with no meetings taking place since December. The SLM and JEM said in March they would not return to the negotiating table until war crimes suspects in Darfur were sent to an international court for trial.

This has not yet happened but the two groups made no reference to the issue in Friday's statement. Instead, they called for the African peace-keeping mission in Darfur to be strengthened and civilians to be protected.

Growing Violence

A senior United Nations official said on Thursday that pro-government Arab fighters were still targeting civilians in Darfur, with rape, kidnapping and banditry increasing in April. "Clearly, lasting peace in Darfur will only come through a negotiated settlement," Hedi Annabi, U.N. assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping, told the Security Council.

He added that it was not clear whether rebel or government leaders were committed to serious talks. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan echoed that theme in a separate written report to the council, saying civilians would keep suffering as long as talks were stalled. "Militia groups will continue to steal, rape and kill with impunity. Rebel movements will continue to fight with whatever capacity they can acquire," he said.

The SLA and JEM announcement came just three days before the leaders of Egypt, Sudan, Chad and Nigeria are due to meet in Libya to discuss the Darfur crisis. The Community of Sant'Egidio is a Roman Catholic movement of lay people who strive to broker peace around the world. Nicknamed "the U.N. of Trastevere" for the Rome neighbourhood where it is based, Sant'Egidio scored its greatest diplomatic success in 1992 when it helped build a deal to end 16 years of civil war that killed 1 million people in Mozambique.

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