Deadline Passes Without Darfur Accord

By LYDIA POLGREEN and JOEL BRINKLEY
Published: May 1, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/01/world/africa/01sudan.html?_r=2&th&emc=th&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Monday, May 1 — Sudan's government offered Sunday to accept a potentially historic Darfur peace agreement, but two of Darfur's three main rebel groups raised last-minute objections that left the negotiations mired in confusion as a midnight deadline passed. Mediators agreed to extend the talks for 48 hours at the request of the United States.

It was unclear early Monday whether the extension in the feverish negotiations, supervised by the African Union at talks in Abuja, Nigeria, made it more or less likely that a deal could be reached. The talks are the most intensive yet in an effort to end the strife in Darfur, the vast region of western Sudan that is the site of what the United Nations has called the world's worst refugee crisis and what the Bush administration calls genocide.

The uncertain outcome of the negotiations came as thousands of people rallied in Washington, calling on the Bush administration to do more to help end the Darfur conflict. [Page A17.]

By early Monday morning, the mediation group at the talks agreed to extend them until midnight Tuesday at the request of Cameron Hume, the chargé d'affaires at the United States Embassy in Khartoum, who said that significant progress had been made and that more time might allow an agreement to emerge, according to Noureddine Mezni, a spokesman for the African Union negotiators.

"He asked if we can give 48 hours to the parties to allow them to bridge the gap on some issues, regarding especially the reintegration and the disarmament, plus some other issues on wealth sharing and power sharing," Mr. Mezni said. "His request was approved."

Progress in the talks was thrown into doubt late Sunday when Seif Haroun, a spokesman for one of the rebel groups, the Sudanese Liberation Army, told reporters in Abuja, "If the proposal does not include all our demands, we will not sign."

At least 200,000 people have been killed and 2 million driven from their homes since 2003 in the chaotic ethnic and political conflict in Darfur, which has pitted a rebel insurgency against the Arab-dominated central government in Khartoum and its proxy tribal militias known as the janjaweed, who are fearsome marauders considered responsible for much of the killing. The strife has spilled into neighboring Chad and threatened to escalate the crisis further.

The United States has placed nearly all of its hopes for a resolution of the crisis on the Abuja peace talks, and a failure there would leave the Bush administration without a viable option to end the violence in the foreseeable future.

In Washington, Robert B. Zoellick, the deputy secretary of state and the Bush administration's point man on Sudan policy, said in an interview that the parties had narrowed the number of issues still under debate.

"I am encouraged, but it is not done yet," he said. African Union officials had said they expected at least a partial breakthrough, which could allow further talks.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, speaking Sunday morning on ABC News, noted that "the United States has been one of the most active states" in working to resolve the crisis.

"Let me just say," she added, "the president has passion about this issue."

Mr. Zoellick, who spent much of Sunday evening conferring by telephone with American diplomats and negotiators in Abuja, said he was not terribly concerned that some of the smaller rebel factions had rejected the proposed agreement, saying these groups would have to come along if the largest faction of the Sudanese Liberation Movement, led by Minni Arcua Minnawi, did eventually agree.

Mr. Minnawi "is trying to be serious about this," Mr. Zoellick said, "with the understanding that there are still some serious difficulties, serious issues, to work through."

The largest area of disagreement, he said, centered on "the demobilization of both sides." The rebels and the government are quite wary of each other. But Mr. Zoellick said Mr. Minnawi and his aides had spent four hours on Sunday evening discussing demobilization with Mr. Hume, the chargé d'affaires in Khartoum.

Sudanese government officials here said Sunday they would accept the peace plan, but their agreement came only after it became apparent that at least some of the rebels would balk.

The proposed agreement would allow for some power and wealth sharing with political groups aligned with the rebel movements that have fought in the insurgency since 2003.

"We have some reservations to the initial draft, but we have submitted our acceptance to the African Union," said Jamal Ibrahim, a government spokesman in Khartoum.

Some rebel leaders say the proposed deal fell short of their demands. The agreement does not give the Darfur groups the vice presidency they demanded, and does not create a single state out of the three states in Darfur, something Darfur political and militant groups say would help reduce the region's powerlessness and marginalization.

The Darfur groups and the Sudanese government have been under enormous pressure to reach an agreement, to end the squabbling that has dominated previous negotiations. The African Union presented both parties with a draft agreement on Tuesday.

Should the talks fail, it is unclear what the next step might be. Ms. Rice and other officials have talked about stationing as many as 20,000 United Nations peacekeeping troops in Darfur, to replace the African Union force of 7,000 that has tried unsuccessfully to keep the peace in Darfur over the past year.

But Sudan has refused to allow any U.N. force in without a signed peace agreement, and few countries have volunteered to provide troops for the mission, even if permission were granted. The Bush administration seems unwilling to proceed with this venture without permission from Sudan.

Recognizing that, perhaps, Ms. Rice urged other countries to get involved.

"We need more help from the international community," she said on CNN. "We need more help, frankly, from China and Russia, which I think have to look at what is going on there and ask what more they can do." Both Russia and China have significant business interests in Sudan and have often been defenders of Sudan at the United Nations and elsewhere.

Even if all the parties do finally reach agreement, senior officials and diplomats said they had serious doubts about the likelihood that it would quickly end the violence. The proposed treaty calls on the Sudanese government to disarm the janjaweed militias. But the United States and other nations have been urging the Sudanese government to disarm the militias for almost three years, to no effect.

Mr. Zoellick said: "If they reach an accord, it is in the Sudanese government's interest to respect it. I think the janjaweed have become a political liability for them now."

What is more, almost everyone involved acknowledges that a cease-fire would have to be enforced. But the African Union forces in Darfur have been unable to prevent violations of numerous cease-fires that have been declared over the previous months.

Some United Nations officials urged the African Union mediators to delay the start of any new cease-fire until after the African Union's force could be strengthened and its armaments and intelligence gathering capabilities improved. But the African Union did not accept that idea, and Mr. Zoellick said he did not favor it.

Still, he added, acknowledging the problem, "if they do reach a peace accord, it will have to be complemented by actions on the ground."

The rebel movements have portrayed themselves as fighters for minority rights against a powerful central government that discriminates against non-Arab tribes, but as the conflict has dragged on and the movements have split into rival factions that now battle among themselves for territory, they have also been criticized for their tactics.