Darfur peace talks made little headway as Sudanese insurgents insisted they would not lay down their weapons until pro-government Arab militiamen stop targeting largely black African civilians in their country's troubled western region. The rebels' refusal on Tuesday to disarm came after a senior Sudanese official rejected the idea of an African peacekeeping mission to Darfur, where more than 30,000 people have been killed in an 18-month conflict and an estimated 1.2 million pushed from their homes. "We're an independent movement and we're fighting for our people and our rights. This force is our guarantee, how can we disarm them?" said Abdelwahid Muhamed El Nur, chairman of the Sudan Liberation Army rebel group.
The talks in Nigeria are an attempt to resolve the crisis in Darfur before the UN Security Council's Aug. 30 deadline for Khartoum to disarm the Arab militia known as Janjaweed or face economic and diplomatic sanctions. "The Janjaweed are carrying out ethnic cleansing and genocide. If there is a security arrangement, disarmament will come gradually. But now we are not ready to speak about disarmament," El Nur said before the African Union-sponsored talks got under way Tuesday. Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is also the AU chairman, pressed both sides to comprise, saying rebel disarmament is a key to lasting peace while warning the government against resisting an international presence in Darfur.
| "Yeah! You should compromise! Maybe they can kill only some of you!" |
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