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African union chairman organized sudan peace talks Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/africa/07/26/sudan.african.union.reut/http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/africa/07/26/sudan.african.union.reut/
Annan, African leaders plan Sudan talks
ABUJA, Nigeria (Reuters) -- United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan will hold talks with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and other African leaders on peace initiatives in Sudan and Ivory Coast Thursday, a Nigerian spokeswoman said Monday.
Obasanjo organized the talks in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, in his capacity as chairman of the African Union, Obasanjo spokeswoman Remi Oyo said.
"A meeting has been scheduled in Accra Thursday ... to be attended by U.N. Secretary General and some African leaders, including President Obasanjo, to discuss some peace initiatives in Sudan and Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)," Oyo told journalists in the Nigerian capital.
Obasanjo has also sent former Nigerian President Abdulsalam Abubakar as his peace envoy to Sudan and neighboring Chad, she added.
Adam Thiam, a spokesman for the African Union, said earlier Monday that the 53-nation organization was continuing efforts to deploy AU cease-fire observers, and a force to protect them, in the remote western region by the end of July.
The deployment is being managed by the AU's Peace and Security Council, its top security body. Thiam said the 15-country council would hold a meeting later on Monday in Addis Ababa at ambassadorial level to discuss Darfur.
But logistical difficulties might result in delays, he said.
"There is no plan to hold a peace meeting on Darfur this week but the AU is not giving up on Darfur," Thiam told Reuters.
"The previous meeting was suspended and not abandoned. The AU is still trying to revive the peace process."
Thiam was referring to an earlier AU attempt to host talks between rebels and the Sudanese government that was suspended this month when rebels walked out after Khartoum rejected some of their preconditions.
The rebels of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) had insisted Khartoum meet six demands, including disarmament of the Janjaweed militia, before they would agree to a face-to-face meeting.
The government said it was happy to discuss the demands but not as a pre-condition for talks.
The United Nations estimates some 30,000 people have been killed and more than a million have fled their homes in the conflict. The U.S. Congress has declared killings, rape and pillage by Arab mounted militia a genocide.
Rebels who took up arms against the government in Darfur in February, 2003, accuse Khartoum of arming the militias.
Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said on Sunday his government could resolve through dialogue the war in Darfur and was ready to cooperate with the AU.
Some observers say rebels in the arid western region are obstructing peace efforts in the expectation that the crisis will force the international community to intervene.
But the United Nations said the JEM and SLM had agreed at a Geneva meeting with special U.N. adviser Mohamed Sahnoun last week to participate in "substantive political negotiations" on Darfur.
The AU is in the process of sending 60 observers to monitor an April cease-fire agreed between the rebels and the government. It also aims to send along 270 troops, drawn mainly from Nigeria, South Africa and Rwanda, to protect the observers.
Copyright 2004 Reuters.
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