Concessions needed to end Sudan's Darfur crisis

Concessions needed to end Sudan's Darfur crisis
Wed Oct 29, 2008 8:13am EDT Email | Print | Share| Reprints | Single Page[-] Text [+]
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KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Initiatives by Sudan and its allies to end the Darfur conflict are unlikely to succeed unless they propose substantial concessions and focus on long-term solutions rather than a quick fix.

International experts estimate 200,000 people have died in Darfur in west Sudan since mostly African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Khartoum government and Arab militias in 2003. Khartoum puts the death toll at 10,000.

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who could face an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes in the Darfur region of west Sudan, unveiled a peace initiative this month.

His Arab friends, wary of ICC steps against an Arab head of state, are also trying to arrange talks between the government and rebel groups in Qatar on ending a conflict in which United Nations officials say 2.5 million people have fled their homes.

But the proposals have been dismissed by rebels and displaced people in Darfur as an attempt to help Bashir avoid an ICC indictment.

Although political analysts say it is too soon to write off any Sudanese or Arab peace efforts, they say any moves to attract the divided rebels to talks are likely to fail if they are hasty and badly prepared.

"The (Bashir) initiative alone will not solve the issue of Darfur," said Fouad Hikmat, director of the Horn of Africa Project at the International Crisis Group think-tank.

CALL FOR DIALOGUE BETWEEN TRIBES

Since the conflict began in 2003, rebel groups have fragmented, and tribes -- Arabs and African alike -- are now fighting each other over land, cattle and power. Bandits have taken advantage of all this to wreak havoc in the region.

Bashir said the solution to Darfur would be based on principles including ending the violence and the voluntary repatriation of hundreds of thousands of displaced people.

But Hikmat said a sustainable solution was unlikely without a dialogue between tribes in Darfur, where they could discuss issues such as land rights and whether they want Darfur's three states to merge into one semi-autonomous region.

Without this, he said, it would be difficult to implement any resolutions reached at peace talks.

Alex de Waal, an expert on Darfur, said government support for the proposal of a single region would be "a major concession to the popular demand of Darfurians, and a breakthrough" in any talks with the rebels.

Another concession, analysts say, could be giving the single region a vice-presidential seat in the national government.

Sudanese newspapers quoted an influential presidential aide, Nafie Ali Nafie, as saying the proposal of a single Darfur region was a "nightmare." Continued...