Darfur rebels given more time to sign peace deal

By Tsegaye Tadesse

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – The African Union on Monday gave
two rebel factions a further two weeks to sign a peace deal for
Sudan’s Darfur region while threatening possible international
sanctions if they did not endorse it.

Only one of the three Darfur rebel factions signed a May 5
accord with Khartoum to end fighting that has killed tens of
thousands of people, and officials fear the two holdouts could
instigate violence to scuttle the deal.

Alpha Oumar Konare, chairman of the African Union (AU)
commission, urged a faction of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army
(SLA) led by Abdel Wahed Mohammed al-Nur and the smaller
Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) to sign the deal
unconditionally.

“Should they embark on any action or measure likely to
undermine the Darfur peace agreement, especially the ceasefire
provisions, the (AU) should take appropriate measures …
including requesting the U.N. Security Council to impose
sanctions against them,” he said in a statement.

The warning came as the AU’s Peace and Security Council met
in Addis Ababa to discuss how to push forward the peace process
in Darfur, which U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan says is the
world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Nigerian Foreign Minister Olu Adeniji, chairman of the AU
Peace and Security Council, later said the two hold-out rebel
groups had been given more time to accept the peace accord.

“The extension of the signature for those who didn’t sign
the agreement will be laid open until the end of May, after
which, failure to sign will indicate non-commitment to the
peace process and the AU will take a decision,” he said.

The peace agreement has provoked violent protests in Sudan
by refugees who say it is not enough to protect them, and
criticism from the Sudanese opposition that the parties were
pressured into signing an ill-considered deal.

MORE CONCESSIONS

But one of Nur’s close advisers said the international
community should press Sudan’s government to grant some extra
concessions to make the deal more acceptable to the rebels.

“If we agree on this document as it stands because of
pressure from the international community, we will not be able
to return to our people,” said Babiker Mohamed Abdallah.

“If the government is not serious, two weeks is not enough.
If it is serious, even two days is enough,” he told Reuters in
the Nigerian capital Abuja.

Although Nur is weak militarily, he represents Darfur’s
largest Fur tribe.

Nur demands greater compensation from Khartoum for Darfur
war victims, more political posts for the movement and greater
SLA involvement in the disarmament of Janjaweed militias.

“When I am assured that the supplementary document has
addressed our demands and been attached to the agreement, I
shall then attach my signature to the Darfur Peace Agreement,”
Nur said in a letter to the AU on Monday.

In another sign of a concerted drive by the AU to pull the
rebels into the deal, its chief Darfur mediator warned Nur he
risked becoming irrelevant unless he accepted a deal already
signed by Minni Arcua Minnawi, leader of the biggest SLA group.

“In every situation where people have not been on board,
eventually they will have to come on board or become
irrelevant,” Salim Ahmed Salim told Reuters.

Konare called for more AU troops to be sent to Darfur and
urged Khartoum to produce a plan to disarm pro-government
Janjaweed militias accused of a campaign of murder and rape
that has driven more than 2 million people into camps in Darfur
and neighboring Chad.

Adeniji later said the AU had decided to begin handing over
its peacekeeping force in Darfur to a UN-led operation as it
announced two months ago. The AU said in March that it would
extend its mission in Darfur until September 30 to allow more
time to transfer control to U.N. forces.

Annan said the AU mission should be turned over to the
United Nations as soon as possible, but until then rich nations
must provide immediate funding for the AU forces.

Sudan had rejected a U.N. deployment in Darfur before a
peace deal, and European Union officials said last week
Khartoum now appeared to be reconsidering allowing U.N. troops.

Jan Egeland, the U.N.’s top humanitarian official,
predicted catastrophe if the deal was not implemented. “If it
is not, it will mean a downward spiral which will get totally
out of control and go into the abyss,” he said from Geneva.

(Additional reporting by Estelle Shirbon in Abuja and
Robert Evans in Geneva)