The road to sustainable peace in war-ravaged Darfur region, western Sudan, might be a long and tortuous one as the on-going African Union (AU)-sponsored Abuja peace talks has continued to be stalled by one hitch or the other.  

Both the Sudanese government and the two rebel groups -- the Justice and Equity Movement (JEM) and the Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM) -- failed to agree on the modalities to be used to study the UN report on the humanitarian situation in Darfur, which is just the first issue on the agenda of the meeting since Aug. 23.

The peace talks still have to address security, political, economic and social problems apart from the lingering discussion on the humanitarian needs of people.

Darfur has been beset by a 19-month conflict between rebel forces of local black tribes, the government and the Arab militia Janjaweed since February 2003.

According to UN figures, the conflict has caused up to more than 10,000 deaths and some one million people displaced, triggering one of the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Indications that efforts of the AU-sponsored Abuja meeting to restore peace to Darfur might be a hard nut to crack first emerged when the Sudanese rebel movements on Aug. 28 boycotted talks for 24 hours, claiming that not less than 70 people died and 30 seriously wounded in various attacks by the Sudanese government forces and their Janjaweed militia supporters in the previous few days.

The rebels said the boycott was imperative because they wanted to draw the attention of the international community to the continued killing of people in Darfur as well as to mourn the victims of the attacks.

Hamid Algabid, AU special envoy for Darfur who leads the Abuja peace talks mediation team, has requested the AU-led Ceasefire Commission to immediately investigate the allegations.

To express his displeasure with the situation in Darfur and convey his disappointment with the Sudanese government's uncompromising position, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo in his capacity as AU chairman sent a letter to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, complaining about the continued killing and raping of people by the Janjaweed militia.

The resumption of the Abuja peace talks on Aug. 29 did not, however, give any auspicious signs as the two sides had not for another whole week made any headway on the humanitarian issue.

Not even the threat of impending sanctions against the Sudanese government by the United Nations from Aug. 30 could hurry up the negotiators and move the talks forward.

The UN Security Council told the Sudanese government to disarm and control the militia, especially the Janjaweed accused of human rights violations in Darfur. It gave the government a 30-day ultimatum to improve the humanitarian situation in Darfur or face possible sanction.

However, from the beginning of the peace talks, the Sudanese government made it clear that it was prepared to defy the UN ultimatum to disarm the militia accused of committing atrocities in the region.

El-Khalifa Ahmed, head of the Sudanese government delegation to the Abuja talks, said that the Sudanese government had never and would not give any thought to beating the UN deadline.

He said that the Abuja meeting may last up to a month because Sudan was more concerned about finding a lasting solution to the plight of its citizens in Darfur rather than merely beating the deadline set for it by the UN.

"It never crossed our minds," he said, adding "we are going to continue negotiations and the deadline will pass and we'll still continue negotiations. I don't think we are going to finish in three, four or five days."

Therefore, it is not surprising that two weeks after the peace talks began in Abuja, compromise on both sides remains far-fetched, especially over issues of disarmament and cantonment of their forces.

Last Wednesday, the rebel groups agreed to work toward ensuring greater access to humanitarian agencies as well as the establishment of a joint humanitarian monitoring unit in Darfur.

But by the next day when the talks resumed, the rebel leaders whipped up new demands which they intended as a pre-condition for the restoration of what analysts have described as a "peace of the graveyard" in Darfur. This was countered as usual by the Sudanese government.

While the Sudanese government is insisting that the JEM and the SLM must lay down their arms first, the rebels groups would want the disarmament of government-sponsored Janjaweed militia as a pre-condition for them to meet Khartoum's demand.

The rebel groups are also demanding the prosecution of the Janjaweed militia and the declaration of a no-fly zone over Darfur before they would append their signature to any agreement on the humanitarian problems created by the fighting in the region.

JEM chief negotiator Ahmed Mohammed Tugod said that the rebel groups would not endorse any agreement on the humanitarian issue until an agreement was reached between all the sides to the Darfur conflict on security that is expected to be a more turbulent matter as the talks resume again on Saturday, Sept. 4.

Also in the same vein, Abdelhafiz Mustapha Musa, an SLM delegate to the Abuja peace talks, declared that his group would not accept the cantonment of its forces, even if it means the collapse of the talks.

Although Nigerian troops numbering 155 in late August joined the Rwandan troops already on ground in the Darfur region to ensure compliance with the cease-fire agreement reached between the Sudanese government and the other combatants in N'djamena, Chad , on April 8, the mandate of the soldiers does not include the protection of the suffering people of Darfur.

The United Nations and the African Union are working out a plan to increase the strength of the current 3000-strong cease-fire monitoring troops and 1,100 policemen as well as widening their mandate to include peacekeeping.

But this, the Sudanese government has vehemently and consistently opposed, claiming to be capable of protecting all its citizens, including those in troubled Darfur.

Tugod of the rebel JEM said the armed groups welcome the idea of African troops to maintain peace in the war-torn region.

He accused the Sudanese government of amassing its troops in Darfur in preparation for a full-scale war.

Tugod also accused the Sudanese government of deliberate attempts to stall the activities of humanitarian organizations in Darfur.

The negotiators on both sides appear to no longer be keen about an urgent resolution of the Darfur crisis and merely buying time for a possible UN intervention that in the thinking of the United States is long overdue. For now the ding-dong that has characterized the Abuja peace talks will continue.

(Xinhua News Agency September 7, 2004)