Military solution no option in Darfur - UN envoy

KHARTOUM, Jan 11 (Reuters) The Sudanese government recognises there is no military solution to the Darfur crisis, said a top UN envoy who called today for an immediate reduction in hostilities to facilitate the political process.

''I was told by practically everybody that there is no military solution ... that included President (Omar Hassan al-) Bashir,'' Jan Eliasson, the UN special envoy for Darfur, told reporters after meeting senior officials in Khartoum.

He said government officials specifically expressed a need for talks to begin with rebels who had not signed an African Union-mediated peace deal in May and had renewed hostilities with the government.

Fighting has escalated since May and aid agencies and experts say security in Darfur is rapidly deteriorating, putting many more civilians at risk and cutting off large parts of the region to relief workers.

Yesterday US Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico, after a visit to Sudan, said he had secured a 60-day ceasefire between the government and the rebels who rejected the deal signed by only one rebel faction.

Sudan's Foreign Ministry issued a statement announcing its agreement to the 60-day ceasefire.

But Eliasson said it was not ''completely clear'' to what extent the rebels had agreed to the ceasefire.

The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), a small faction in the larger rebel alliance National Redemption Front (NRF), on Thursday said they had not agreed to such a truce.

''There is no ceasefire between us and the government,'' JEM spokesman Abu Bakr Hamid el-Nur told Reuters from Darfur.

Fighting erupted in February 2003 when rebels took up arms against the government accusing Khartoum of marginalising Darfur.

The government responded by arming militias to counter the rebellion.

Since then 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million have been forced from their homes.

Washington calls the rape, pillage and murder in Darfur genocide, a term Khartoum rejects. The International Criminal Court is investigating alleged war crimes in the region and the world's largest aid operation is working there.

Khartoum rejects a UN Security Council Resolution authorising some 22,500 UN troops to take over from struggling African Union forces. Then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan suggested a hybrid force which Khartoum has also rejected.

But Sudan has agreed to allow technical UN support personnel to deploy to Darfur to help the AU, lessening the confrontation between the world body and Khartoum.

Eliasson declined to elaborate on the government position on accepting a joint UN-African Union force in Darfur. He instead emphasised that successful political negotiations needed to happen first.

''There has to be a peace to keep,'' he said.

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