Darfur Talks Postponed, Oil Workers Abducted
Peace talks to end the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region, which began in the coastal Libyan town Sirte on 28 October, have been postponed due to the absence of key players among the rebel groups. “The preparations by the UN and the AU (African Union) for the talks in Libya have not been good enough,” says Hafiz Muhammad, Darfur coordinator at the London-based advocacy organization Justice Africa. About seven of the armed Darfuri groups started to meet in South Sudan’s capital Juba prior to the Libya talks, but the AU and the UN told them to come straight to Libya, Mr Muhammad says, which prevented them from establishing a common position. The head of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) 'Abd al-Wahid al-Nur, one of the more influential rebel leaders, refused to attend because of the delayed deployment of a UN and African Union (AU) peacekeeping force, and because he considered the Libyan leader Mu΄ammar al-Qadhafi too close to Khartoum.
Another important rebel group that was absent, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), is demanding full representation in the national government and compensation for displaced Darfuris. JEM was responsible for the abduction on 24 October of five oil workers, three of whom were employees of the oil services giant Schlumberger, from the producing Defra oil field in Block 4. The Defra field is owned by the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC), a consortium led by China’s CNPC, and the attack suggests the conflict is spreading outside of Darfur into the Kordofan region. The insurgent group said it launched the attack to send a message to China to stop funding the Sudanese government through its oil industry, according to Reuters. The JEM is thought to have told foreign oil firms to leave the area within one week of the assault, and warned that it would target oil installations across Sudan until Khartoum gave in to a list of demands. The group is deliberately attempting to widen the Darfur conflict in order to undermine the government in Khartoum, one observer told MEES.
The UN’s Special Envoy Jan Eliasson, who was co-chairing the talks with his AU counterpart Salim Ahmad Salim, said that despite the absence of several parties, “I refuse to state that the peace process is interrupted. The train has left the station for the road to peace. The question is how many passengers will get on the train.” The Sudanese government declared an immediate unilateral truce at the beginning of the talks, although the absence of rebel groups such as the JEM casts doubt over the viability of such a truce. Mr Eliasson acknowledged that wider rebel participation was needed, and UN and AU officials were expected to travel to Sudan to try to persuade key rebel leaders to end their boycott. At least the officials appear to be aware that the negotiations in Abuja in 2006, which resulted in the short-lived Darfur Peace Agreement, are generally thought to have failed because they did not have the support from all parties engaged in the conflict – only one of the rebel factions signed the agreement – and because the international community imposed arbitrary deadlines on the peace talks.
Copyright MEES 2007.
