U.N., African Union to work on Darfur talks

UNITED NATIONS – U.N. and African Union envoys said Friday they would renew efforts to bring Darfur’s warring parties to the peace table and convince them there is no military solution.

The Sudanese government and one of the major rebel groups signed a peace agreement in May. But the pact has provoked months of fighting between rival rebel factions that refused to sign.

The U.N. special envoy for Darfur, Jan Eliasson, and his AU counterpart Salim Ahmed Salim announced an effort to “re-energize the political process” in Darfur.

The two met with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who took office Jan. 1 and has devoted much of his first days on the job to the Darfur conflict, which has killed more than 200,000 people and displaced 2.5 million.

“At the end of the day, really there can be no military solution to the crisis in Darfur,” Salim said.

Eliasson said the first step would be to “instill a sense of importance of reducing the level of violence so that … we can create conditions for a political process.”

Fighting in Darfur began in February 2003 when rebels from black African tribes took up arms, complaining of decades of neglect and discrimination by Sudan’s Arab-dominated government. The government is accused of unleashing Arab tribal militia known as the Janjaweed against civilians in a campaign of murder, rape and arson. The government denies the allegations.

A poorly equipped and financed African Union force of 7,000 has been unable to bring security to region, and the conflict has spilled over into neighboring Chad.

Al-Bashir rejected a U.N. Security Council resolution in August that called for more than 20,000 U.N. peacekeepers to replace the overwhelmed AU force, claiming a U.N. force would compromise Sudan’s sovereignty and try to recolonize the country.

Annan then proposed a three-step U.N. package to beef up the African Union force, culminating with the deployment of a 22,000-strong “hybrid” AU-U.N. force.