Compromises urged amid deadlock in Darfur talks
ABUJA, Nigeria -- Peace talks on Sudan's violence-torn Darfur region are deadlocked, a mediator said yesterday, as the chief of the African Union appealed to the Sudanese government and rebels to compromise.
The two-week-old talks in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, have not moved past the crucial question of disarming -- with rebels saying they will lay down their guns only after Sudan's pro-government militia, the Janjaweed, does so.
''It appears deadlocked, as the two sides are holding to their hard-line positions," Brigadier General Festus Okwonko, a mediator and commander of the African Union's cease-fire monitoring troops in Darfur, told reporters.
Negotiations are aimed at ending a 19-month-conflict in Sudan's western region of Darfur that has killed tens of thousands and driven an estimated 1.2 million civilians from their homes. The Janjaweed are accused of carrying out atrocities in attacks on non-Arab African villages. The United Nations calls it the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
The two rebel movements -- the Sudanese Liberation Army and the Justice, Equity Movement -- draw their support from African tribes in the region.
The Sudanese government is accused of backing the Janjaweed in an effort to stamp out the rebellion, a charge Khartoum denies.
Sudan's government and the rebels laid out conflicting positions in responses to a mediator's draft proposal on security.
Mediators asked President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, the African Union's current chief, to intervene personally.
Obasanjo did so yesterday, urging rebels and Sudan's government to ease their demands at the scheduled resumption of talks later in the day, said Ahmed Tugod, spokesman for the rebels.
The rebels are insistent that government warplanes stop bombing in Darfur and that Janjaweed militia be disbanded and investigated for human rights violations, Tugod said. ''For us, these issues will decide the fate of the talks," the rebel spokesman said.
Sudan's chief negotiator, Majzoub Khalifa, said yesterday his government remained committed to the talks. ''We are ready to continue the negotiations on the security matter," Khalifa said.
But Sudan's delegates warned against any intervention in the talks beyond that of the African Union, apparently fearing the United States or others might be moved to bring pressure to bear.
''Any . . . type of interventions in the talks will only complicate matters," said General Abdullah Saffi El Nour, a Sudan government envoy to the talks.
