Fresh rebel demands delay signing of humanitarian agreement

The signing of an agreement to improve the humanitarian situation in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region at peace talks in the Nigerian capital Abuja was stalled on Thursday after rebel delegates tabled fresh demands. The agreement, worked out by mediators during 10 days of talks, would have cleared the way for unhindered humanitarian assistance to over one million people displaced from their homes in Darfur by fighting between two rebel groups, Khartoum's security forces and the pro-government Janjawid militia. However, Ahmed Tugod, a spokesman for the two rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement, said they would not sign the agreement on humanitarian assistance until “issues of security” were settled. “Basically we’re calling for Darfur to be declared a no-fly zone for all military aircraft, we’re calling for the disarmament and disbandment of the Janjawid, we’re asking for an independent body to investigate their crimes,” Tugod told reporters. The rebels also object to proposals to restrict their fighters to specified cantonment sites unless government troops in Darfur are similarly confined to barracks. “We’re not going to commit ourselves to any agreement that is going to canton us in a specific area, which will enable the military to bombard us in a minute,” Tugod said. Ibrahim Mohammed Ibrahim, the spokesman for the Sudanese government delegation, played down the significance of the disagreement with the rebels. “Security is a very important issue, so we were all trying to make a point,” Ibrahim said, adding that he still expected the deal on humanitarian assistance to be signed soon. Fighting broke out in Sudan's southwest Darfur region in February 2003, when the two rebels factions, drawn largely from black African tribes, rose up against the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum, claiming that Darfur had been neglected as region. The government of President Omar el Bashir has been widely accused of using the Janjawid, an Arab militia mounted on horses and camels, to attack black African farmers in Darfur and drive them from their villages. The United Nations estimates that some 1.5 million people have been made homeless by the conflict including nearly 200,000 who have fled as refugees to neighbouring Chad. A 30-day ultimatum given to Khartoum by the U.N. Security Council on July 30 to address the humanitarian situation in Darfur and disarm the Janjawid expired at the end of last week. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said in a report to the UN Security Council on Wednesday the Sudan government had not done enough to provide security for the "terrorized and traumatized" people displaced by the violence. The impasse in the Abuja peace talks came as Jan Pronk, the UN special envoy to Sudan briefed the Security Council in a closed door session on Thursday on the findings of his trip to Darfur last month.