Upcoming peace talks for Darfur encounter obstacles

U.N. negotiators are scrambling to preserve upcoming Darfur peace talks threatened by escalating violence in the troubled region and the unraveling of a separate political accord that ended two decades of civil war in Sudan’s south.

The U.N. envoy for Darfur, Jan Eliasson, met Thursday with warring rebel groups that have launched recent attacks in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, asking them to end the bloodshed and agree to a cease-fire for Oct. 27 talks.

He gave the same message to Sudan’s government Wednesday, after claims that in the southern part of Darfur this week the country’s army had killed 45 rebel fighters in Muhajeria. Government troops had earlier razed the town of Haskanita -- killing about 100 civilians -- in apparent retaliation for an attack on a nearby peacekeeping base, rebel leaders said.

“It is a troubling development, but we must not be provoked,” Eliasson said in a telephone interview from Khartoum, the Sudanese capital. “There are those who want to hurt the peace process, but we must keep cool and stay the course.”

Eliasson and his African Union counterpart, Salim Ahmed Salim, have been working for 10 months to corral the groups fighting in Darfur for peace talks. The 4 1/2 -year conflict between the government, its allied militias and rebels has led to more than 200,000 deaths and the displacement of 2.5 million people, a toll that has caused worldwide alarm and been labeled genocide by President Bush.

An increase in violence had been expected as the factions jockey for last-minute gains before the peace talks, but the intensity of attacks in recent weeks has startled veteran diplomats and even Sudan’s rebel leaders, who publicly disavowed violence attributed to their factions.

“Sometimes before crucial negotiations start there’s a positioning going on both politically and militarily,” Eliasson said from Khartoum. “But I find this military escalation alarming. Using violence to make political gains is not a way to work in this situation when we’re preparing for peace talks.”

The unprecedented attack on the African Union base near Haskanita on Sept. 29 shocked observers, and highlighted how uncontrolled and powerful the rebel groups have become -- as well as the vulnerability of the African peacekeeping forces trying to stem the fighting.

The government blamed the attack on the Sudanese Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement, but leaders of those rebel groups denied their factions were responsible, and accused the government of framing them to spook peacekeepers.

The attack was well organized and was executed over two days. Nearly 1,000 fighters killed 10 peacekeepers, capturing arms and vehicles, including an armored personnel carrier, U.N. officials said.

The African Union sent about 7,000 peacekeepers to Darfur in 2004 to help quell the violence in the region. But the force has been largely unpaid and under-equipped, and its lack of basic communications equipment and evacuation plans made it an easy target during the Haskanita raid, say officials familiar with the details of the attack.

Afterward, officials from Senegal and Nigeria said the bloody attack made them reassess their agreement to send troops for a joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force of 26,000 soldiers, meant to deploy in early 2008. So far no countries have withdrawn troop pledges, U.N. officials said.

Sudan’s government has stalled the increased deployment of peacekeepers for months, objecting to troops from non-African countries, which it considers “occupiers.” It is also balking at landing rights and land grants for the force, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a report Thursday.

The government’s willingness to negotiate on the conflict in Darfur may be hampered by the unraveling of a separate, 2005 peace accord it had with the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement in the country’s south. The former rebel army withdrew from the national government Thursday, saying Khartoum had failed to abide by an agreement to share power and withdraw its troops from the south.

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement ended 21 years of war between the Muslim north and largely Christian south that caused more than 2 million deaths, mostly from disease and starvation. The agreement has been regarded as a model for ending the conflict in Darfur.

Eliasson said that though he expected fighting to increase in coming days, the best way to stop it was to go ahead with the peace talks as planned.

“Any delay will lead to more bloodshed,” he said.

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maggie.farley@latimes.com