Darfur rebel faction accepts peace deal

By Estelle Shirbon

ABUJA (Reuters) – The biggest of three Darfur rebel
factions and the Sudanese government accepted a peace agreement
on Friday but two other rebel factions rejected the deal,
casting doubt on whether it would end three years of bloodshed.

Both the government and a Sudan Liberation Army (SLA)
faction said they agreed to the terms of the deal despite
reservations in order to end the suffering in Sudan’s arid
west.

“I accept the document with some reservations concerning
the power sharing,” SLA faction leader Minni Arcua Minnawi told
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, U.S. Deputy Secretary of
State Robert Zoellick and a host of senior diplomats meeting at
Obasanjo’s Abuja compound.

A spokesman for Minnawi’s group said the main reservation
was what they saw as insufficient representation in parliament.

The deal Minnawi’s SLA faction agreed to was an amended
version of an African Union (AU) drafted document produced
after two years of talks. Western diplomats reworked parts that
draft to win the support of rebels.

These amendments included stronger security guarantees for
the rebels. In particular, provisions for rebel fighters to
join the Sudanese armed forces were strengthened, as was a
requirement Sudan disarm its proxy Janjaweed militias.

The government delegation, which had earlier accepted the
AU draft, told a meeting of African heads of state and Western
diplomats they would also accept the new terms.

“The priority for us is peace and the priority for us is to
alleviate the humanitarian situation in Darfur,” said Majzoub
al-Khalifa, head of the government’s negotiating team.

Sam Ibok, head of the AU mediation team, said the
government’s main misgiving was the integration of rebels into
security forces. Khartoum negotiators said the number of rebels
to be absorbed into government security forces was too high.

“BIG DAY FOR DARFUR”

Mediators clapped and embraced at the end of the session
with the government delegation and everyone in the room had a
wide smile on their faces despite the all-night marathon talks.

AU chief mediator Salim Ahmed Salim said he would have been
happier if all rebel factions had signed but this was
nevertheless “a big day for the people of Darfur.”

“In realistic terms the agreement between the government
and the SLA Minni is a major development. The two of them
working together can make a major contribution to a return to
peace and normalcy in Darfur,” Salim told Reuters.

Ibok said: “We are hoping those who are outside the
agreements now will not do anything to impede the
implementation because if they do there will be a robust
response from the AU and the U.N. Security Council.”

A rival faction of the SLA and the smaller Justice and
Equality Movement (JEM) earlier rejected the deal citing a wide
range of objections.

AU negotiators said they would bring rival SLA faction
leader Abdel Wahed Mohammed al-Nur back to the talks to ask him
if he would reconsider.

Minnawi has more support among SLA fighters than Nur,
observers say, and JEM is marginal in terms of forces on the
ground. But it is unclear how useful an agreement signed by
only one of the three factions would be.

“JEM frankly doesn’t matter but Abdel Wahed does. There are
provisions in the agreement for armed groups that are not
signatory to be made to observe the agreement,” said a Western
diplomat, who has been involved in the crafting the blueprint.

He said these provisions could offer an avenue to include
Nur’s faction during the implementation process and he also
added there would likely be U.N. sanctions against those who
blocked the agreement.

AU MISSION

Three deadlines for a peace deal had passed since Sunday
despite intensive efforts to end a war that has killed tens of
thousands of people and driven more than 2 million from home.

Rebels took up arms in early 2003 in ethnically mixed
Darfur, a region the size of France, over what they saw as
neglect by the Arab-dominated central government.

Khartoum used militias, drawn from Arab tribes, to crush
the rebellion. A campaign of arson, looting and rape has caused
a humanitarian catastrophe in Darfur and the United States
labels the violence there “genocide.”

Western governments have called for the 7,000-strong AU
mission to be turned over to the United Nations but the
government in Khartoum has said it would only consider a U.N.
presence in Darfur after a peace agreement.

“This can be a very important day of hope and opportunity
for the poor people of Darfur who have been suffering, but it
is only a step,” Zoellick told reporters in Abuja.

“It has to be followed through on the ground by the
government and the (rebel) movement with support from the
African Union mission and we hope from a U.N. force,” he added.