New mediation efforts for Darfur

The government of Sudan may be willing to accept new mediation efforts to resolve the Darfur conflict in the west of the country, according to Sa'id Khatib, the official government spokesman. "There are initiatives that the government is examining and talking [about] with the initiators," Khatib told IRIN. He said both the EU and the US had come forward, and that a new mediation was a possibility. No comment was available from the EU, but a senior official of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) confirmed on Thursday that a US initiative had been attempting to bring the rebels and the government together. Roger Winter, USAID assistant director, said he had spoken to five key rebel leaders from Darfur to ascertain if they would attend a conference aiming at a cease-fire. "They all say yes. We have asked the government over the last two weeks if they would participate in such an event - as of now we have no affirmative answer that they would participate," he said. Khatib told IRIN that the Chadian government would be incorporated into a new initiative because of its close ties with Sudan and earlier mediation efforts. "We don't want to stand up the Chadians, because they were the first to offer. Their presence is very important," he said. Chad mediated talks between the government and the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) which led to a nominal ceasefire from September to December, but then broke down indefinitely amid mutual recriminations. Both the SLA and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) have repeatedly said the presence of international mediators is a precondition to further talks. Regional analysts told IRIN that a number of parallel mediation initiatives for the Darfur conflict were ongoing, but that there was no agreement on details such as the venue, and that no progress was in sight. Meanwhile, the rebels are reportedly becoming increasingly frustrated, and spreading their area of influence into regions beyond Darfur. Humanitarian sources have reported ambushes in Western Kordofan in recent days, while Reuters news agency reported an SLA attack on Tuesday 100 kms north of El Obeid (Al-Ubayyid), the capital of Northern Kordofan. An SLA spokesman, Hasan Ibrahim, told IRIN he had no information about the El Obeid attack, but said the SLA did have forces in Kordofan, which "can be used at any time". "If the government is not ready to sit for negotiations, we will be active everywhere in Sudan," he said. A spokesman for the JEM, Abu Bakr Hamid al-Nur, told IRIN that its forces were also active in Western Kordofan, and were moving towards the capital, Khartoum. "We will fight government troops anywhere." He said JEM was actively recruiting in Kordofan and that many individuals were coming forward. "We will merge with any organisation in the marginalised areas." Observers are concerned that Darfur's two rebel groups may forge alliances with dissident groups in Kordofan and other areas, having already forged an alliance with the Beja Congress armed movement in eastern Sudan. In mid February the SLA also joined the National Democratic Alliance, an umbrella of opposition and armed groups with headquarters in Asmara. Earlier this month, the Sudanese government claimed that the war in Darfur was over, offered an amnesty to rebels in the region and guaranteed humanitarian access to agencies. A peace conference in Khartoum is being organised for March, which the rebels say they will not attend. Meanwhile, there are repeated reports of continuing attacks on civilians by government-aligned forces in Darfur. Winter said on Thursday that "despite the comments of President Bashir and the [Khartoum] government generally, the war is still raging there [in Darfur]. And it is still the case that government-connected militias are attacking the African populations of the Darfur area." "What feeds into the ethnic cleansing scenario is that the government does not seem to be interested in protecting the Darfur people against the raids... It seems that no real steps are being taken by the government to stop the uprooting and attacking of these civilian populations," he added. The EU said on Thursday it was "alarmed at reports that Janjawid militias continue to systematically target villages and centres for IDPs [internally displaced persons] in their attacks". Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said this week that every assessment it was conducting revealed newly displaced people. Humanitarian access in Darfur has improved since last month, with between 25 percent and 30 percent of the region's 700,000 IDPs now accessible, up from 15 percent in January. A further 110,000 have fled to eastern Chad, where the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has begun moving them to camps further inland to escape cross-border raids and give them access to water, shelter and food.