Mediators woo Sudan Darfur rebels as deadline looms

KHARTOUM - Talks intensified today to convince two Darfur rebel factions to sign a peace deal by a midnight deadline to end a three-year-old conflict in Sudan's violent west where tens of thousands have been killed.

A May 5 deal was signed by only one rebel faction leader, Minni Arcua Minnawi of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), and African Union mediators gave two other factions until Wednesday to sign or face possible UN sanctions.

"The day will end at midnight so we still have time and we still wish to see others joining the peace process," said Noureddine Mezni, AU spokesman in Khartoum.

Minnawi told Reuters the others needed to sign up to address their concerns from within rather than be outside in the cold.

"Let them hurry to sign," he said. "If they join the agreement they can develop things but whenever they are outside they cannot develop the document."

But he said no changes could be made to the current deal.

Abdel Wahed Mohammed al-Nur, the other SLA faction leader, is in the Kenyan capital Nairobi but yesterday his group said he would not sign unless changes or additions were made to the text, conditions which the AU and Sudan's government reject.

And the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) said the deal was not acceptable to JEM and the people of Darfur.

"We are calling on the United Nations and the AU (African Union) not to close doors and windows for peace in Darfur and also not to consider this document as something that cannot be changed," Ibrahim Mohamad Khalil, head of JEM, told a news conference in Ljubljana.

Khalil, in talks with Darfur peace negotiator, Slovenian President Janez Drnovsek, said the deal was not comprehensive, had no guarantees and no time frame for implementation.

"We will continue negotiating," said Khalil.

"We are calling on the United Nations and international mediators to be patient, not to hurry up, not to force an unacceptable peace on people of Darfur."

Slovenian President Janez Drnovsek said at a joint news conference that he would continue to talk to JEM later today to try to find a solution. "If other actors in negotiations will be ready to prolong the deadline Slovenia is ready to help."

The SLA and JEM have said they want more political posts, better compensation for the victims of the conflict and a say in disarming the government-armed Arab militia, who are blamed for much of the violence on the ground.

While Minnawi's faction has the most firepower in Darfur, Nur is from the region's largest Fur tribe, and analysts fear he may cause a split along ethnic lines if he does not sign up.

The African Union's Mezni said the AU Peace and Security Council would decide what action, if any, to take against those who did not sign. The council will meet in the coming days.

AU Peace and Security Commissioner Said Djinnit was not optimistic.

"I have no information to enable me to give you good news today," he told Reuters in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

But he added that a number of groups that had split from the Nur SLA faction and JEM had approached the AU saying they supported the deal.

More than two million, mostly non-Arab, Darfuris have fled their homes to miserable camps, which have become tinderboxes of violence as thousands demonstrate against the deal on offer.

The Sudanese Organisation Against Torture said in a statement that police opened fire on Darfuris in the Otash camp in South Darfur on Monday, killing one and wounding three. In nearby Kalma, police beat and arrested dozens of demonstrators.

A UN report said on Wednesday most aid agencies and the AU had withdrawn from Otash camp following the violence and no one was assisting the injured.

The report added in Kalma, two other Darfuris were killed by unknown armed men. The AU also pulled out of Kalma after people there attacked and burnt their site in the camp, beating to death one of their interpreters earlier this month.

- REUTERS