April 14, 2004
Sudanese Government, Rebels Agree Darfur Truce
Reuters

Sudan and two rebel groups agreed to a 45-day cease-fire on Thursday and access for relief groups in the western Darfur region, where the U.N. has repeatedly warned of a possible humanitarian disaster.

By Nima Elbagir

AL-FASHIR, Sudan (Reuters) - Sudan and two rebel groups agreed to a 45-day cease-fire on Thursday and access for relief groups in the western Darfur region, where the U.N. has repeatedly warned of a possible humanitarian disaster.

Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail told Reuters the three parties, meeting in Chad, also agreed to hold more talks in two weeks on the conflict, which has displaced hundreds of thousands of people in Darfur.

"I'm happy to announce that they have signed an agreement on humanitarian access and an agreement on a cease-fire. The cease-fire is for 45 days and is renewable," said Ismail, speaking in al-Fashir, the capital of Northern Darfur state.

The United Nations (news - web sites) has warned of a humanitarian disaster in Darfur, where Arab militias have been driving African villagers off their land in what international organizations have described as ethnic cleansing.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) said on Wednesday that international military intervention might be needed to stop the conflict. The government said that would not be necessary.

The rebels, the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement, took up arms against the government in February last year saying the government had armed the militias and had neglected the impoverished region for years.

Ismail said the African Union would meet in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa next week to discuss ways of monitoring the cease-fire, which along with the agreement on humanitarian groups takes effect immediately.

In Abeche, Chad, aid workers helping refugees from the Darfur region along the border doubted whether the cease-fire would hold for long or help them much.

Some 110,000 refugees -- mainly Muslim black Africans -- have fled into Chad in the past few months.

"It'll be the third or fourth cease-fire they've signed," Simon Salimini, who coordinates food distribution to some 20,000 refugees in five World Food Program camps in eastern Chad, said after hearing that a new truce was imminent.

FACT-FINDING MISSION

Direct cease-fire talks began in the Chadian capital N'Djamena on Tuesday after the parties resolved a dispute over the presence of international observers.

The European Union (news - web sites) added to the international pressure for a settlement on Thursday when it called on the United Nations Human Rights Commission to condemn "grave violations of human rights and international humanitarian law" in Darfur.

The call came in a resolution from the 15-nation EU, and most of the 10 countries who will join in May, presented for approval by the 53-member Commission.

The United Nations this week dispatched a fact-finding mission on a 10-day mission to investigate the Darfur conflict.

The four-member team is still interviewing Sudanese refugees in Chad and has not yet been given a green light to enter Sudan, a U.N. human rights spokeswoman said in Geneva late on Thursday.

On Wednesday Annan, in a speech to the Commission, suggested that a Rwanda-style genocide could be looming in Darfur, which lies along Sudan's arid western border with Chad.

The conflict has spilled over into Khartoum politics after the party led by Islamist leader Hassan al-Turabi expressed sympathy for the grievances of the rebels.

In late March the Sudanese authorities arrested Turabi for inciting tribal tensions and accused 10 military officers of plotting to sabotage economic installations in the capital.

The officers were associated either with Darfur or with Turabi's Popular Congress, officials said.

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