The African Union High-Level Implementation Panel considers it unfortunate that the Sudanese government, SPLM-N and Darfur rebel movements have failed to reach a ceasefire in Darfur, Blue Nile and South Kordofan after a week of talks on the matter.
AU mediators are blaming two Darfur armed groups, the Justice and Equality Movement and SLM-Minni Minawi, for the failure of the talks on Darfur, which are now suspended indefinitely. They are also calling on the SPLM-North and Sudanese government to reconsider their positions on a contentious point that sunk the talks on the Two Areas.
“Regrettably, despite one week of intensive engagements the Parties have failed to reach agreement, dashing the hopes and expectations of the long-suffering Sudanese people. The Panel believes that the Parties have allowed a real and critical opportunity to slip out of their hands,” reads a statement by the AUHIP.
Negotiations for a cessation of hostilities began after a breakthrough earlier this month when SPLM-N, JEM, SLM-MM, and the Umma Party signed the AU Roadmap Agreement, which the government had already signed.
Mbeki’s mediation team called this a “significant milestone towards the realisation of a genuinely inclusive National Dialogue process.” But the follow-up talks for parallel ceasefires in Darfur and the Two Areas broke down after two Darfur groups introduced new demands, according to the mediators.
“On Darfur, the obstacles arose when the armed movements, during the last session, re-opened numerous issues that had previously been agreed and others which contradicted the Roadmap Agreement,” the AU mediators explained.
“Although the facilitators presented balanced options, including on the sites where the armed movements would be located, and mechanisms for the monitoring of humanitarian assistance, the JEM and SLM-MM rejected the proposals.”
AUHIP did not provide many details about its proposals, but it stressed that the government accepted them while the rebels rejected them: “While the government accepted those proposals, the introduction of new issues by the JEM and SPLM-MM, inevitably broke the negotiations.”
The African mediators also pointed out that SPLM-N, in the parallel talks on the Two Areas, insisted on a provision allowing the sourcing of humanitarian assistance through Asosa in Ethiopia, but the Sudanese government rejected it.
Ethiopian officials were brought in to offer “reassurances and guarantees” to the parties on this matter but “these entreaties fell on deaf ears.”
Sudanese government chief negotiator Ibrahim Mahmoud accused the SPLM-N for the failure of the talks and for prolonging the war. On the other hand, the SPLM-N chief negotiator Yassir Arman said the Sudanese government lost a big chance to achieve peace, accusing it of refusing to make concessions.
AUHIP says it strongly urges each party to reconsider their positions that have impeded progress in the talks.
For his part, Minni Arko Minawi, the chairman of Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) also accused the government of sticking to its stance and not willing to make concessions in the talks.
He said the government wants the opposition to go to Khartoum without any agreement. Minawi said that they received notice from the (AUHIP) for the indefinite postponement of the talks.
File photo: The African Union High-Level Implementation Panel