UN chief warns of tough work ahead for Darfur peace

TRIPOLI – UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned yesterday of hard work ahead to restore peace to Darfur as he wrapped up an African tour in which he secured the Sudanese government’s commitment to new talks with the rebels.

Ban described the undertaking from Khartoum to participate in the negotiations in Libya next month as ‘credible progress’. But he stressed that the opportunity to end the more than four-year-old Darfur conflict in which United Nations officials estimate 200 000 people have died now needed to be seized.”I think we have made another credible progress at this time on the path to peace and security in Darfur,” Ban told reporters in the Libyan capital.”I’m encouraged by this progress but we must build upon this progress.It is yet too early to say that we have made some good achievement.”Ban said it was now vital to ensure that all of Darfur’s myriad rebel factions turned up for the opening of the negotiations on October 27 and said the support of the governments of neighbouring countries would be key.”Now our challenge is to bring all the parties to the dialogue table,” he said.The last peace talks in Nigeria in May 2006 resulted in an agreement that was signed by just one of the three rebel groups taking part and the factions have since further splintered, sparking a new upsurge of violence in the western Sudanese region.In preparation for next month’s talks, the United Nations and the African Union last month organised a preliminary meeting among the rebels in Tanzania that resulted in eight factions signing up to a common platform.But one key rebel player refused to attend that meeting – the founding father of the uprising, Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur, who is now based in exile in Paris.Ban, who visited Sudan’s western neighbour Chad as well as Libya on his tour, said he was heartened by the backing he had received for the peace push from neighbouring states.Eritrea, which until recently had very strained relations with Sudan, long hosted Darfur rebel leaders.Sudan has also accused Chad, whose President Idriss Deby Ittno has ethnic links with some of the rebels, of providing them with armed support.Libya too has maintained contacts with some of the rebel groups which did not sign up to the Nigerian peace deal.Nampa-AFPBut he stressed that the opportunity to end the more than four-year-old Darfur conflict in which United Nations officials estimate 200 000 people have died now needed to be seized.”I think we have made another credible progress at this time on the path to peace and security in Darfur,” Ban told reporters in the Libyan capital.”I’m encouraged by this progress but we must build upon this progress.It is yet too early to say that we have made some good achievement.”Ban said it was now vital to ensure that all of Darfur’s myriad rebel factions turned up for the opening of the negotiations on October 27 and said the support of the governments of neighbouring countries would be key.”Now our challenge is to bring all the parties to the dialogue table,” he said.The last peace talks in Nigeria in May 2006 resulted in an agreement that was signed by just one of the three rebel groups taking part and the factions have since further splintered, sparking a new upsurge of violence in the western Sudanese region.In preparation for next month’s talks, the United Nations and the African Union last month organised a preliminary meeting among the rebels in Tanzania that resulted in eight factions signing up to a common platform.But one key rebel player refused to attend that meeting – the founding father of the uprising, Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur, who is now based in exile in Paris.Ban, who visited Sudan’s western neighbour Chad as well as Libya on his tour, said he was heartened by the backing he had received for the peace push from neighbouring states.Eritrea, which until recently had very strained relations with Sudan, long hosted Darfur rebel leaders.Sudan has also accused Chad, whose President Idriss Deby Ittno has ethnic links with some of the rebels, of providing them with armed support.Libya too has maintained contacts with some of the rebel groups which did not sign up to the Nigerian peace deal.Nampa-AFP