Darfur rebels refuse peace as deadline passes

Khartoum, June 1: Two Darfur rebel groups today refused to sign a peace deal ahead of a deadline set by the African Union to end the three-year-old conflict that has killed tens of thousands in Sudan's remote west.

The African Union, set up to promote social, political and economic integration in Africa, has raised the spectre of UN sanctions against Abdel Wahed Mohammed al-Nur of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) if they did not sign before the May 31 deadline.

The AU's Peace and Security Council will now decide what, if any, punitive measures are to be taken against the two factions who say an earlier deal signed by one group on May is unjust and does not meet their basic demands.

The council will meet in the coming days although no date has been set. Many AU deadlines have been set and missed over the past two years of negotiations without any repercussions.

Only one SLA faction headed by Minni Arcua Minnawi signed the AU-mediated May 5 deal with the government. Minnawi told Reuters the others needed to sign up to address their concerns from within rather than be outside in the cold.

''Let them hurry to sign,'' he said. ''If they join the agreement they can develop things but whenever they are outside they cannot develop the document.'' But he said no changes could be made to the current deal.

Abdel Wahed Mohammed al-Nur, the other SLA faction leader, is in the Kenyan capital Nairobi but his group said he would not sign unless changes or additions were made to the text, conditions which the AU and Sudan's government reject.

'Unacceptable'

The rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) leader Khalil Ibrahim, in last-minute talks with Slovenian President Janez Drnovsek, said the deal was not acceptable.

''We are calling on the United Nations and international mediators to be patient, not to hurry up, not to force an unacceptable peace on people of Darfur,'' he told a news conference in Ljubljana.

Slovenian President Janez Drnovsek said he would continue to talk to JEM to try to find a solution. ''If other actors in negotiations will be ready to prolong the deadline Slovenia is ready to help.'' While Minnawi's rebel faction has the most firepower in Darfur, Nur is from the region's largest Fur tribe. Analysts say he may cause a split along ethnic lines if he does not sign.

The SLA and JEM have said they want more political posts, better compensation for the victims of the conflict and a say in disarming the government-armed Arab militia, who are blamed for much of the violence on the ground.

Other armed groups, including the militia, known as Janjaweed, who were not represented at the Abuja talks also need to be brought on board to accept the deal.

More than two million, mostly non-Arab, Darfuris have fled their homes to miserable camps, which have become tinderboxes of violence as thousands demonstrate against the deal on offer.

Reuters