Adam Sherif, a Darfur refugee living at Gaga camp in eastern Chad, listens to Arabic radio to find out the latest developments at the Darfur peace talks yesterday. After three deadlines for a deal passed, the biggest of three Darfur rebel factions and the Sudanese government signed a peace agreement but two other rebel factions rejected the deal, casting doubt on whether it would be workable. - REUTERSABUJA, Nigeria (AP):
THE SUDANESE Government and the main Darfur rebel group signed a peace plan yesterday after a diplomatic push by the United States, a major step in the international effort to end the death and destruction in western Sudan.
Two rebel groups, however, rejected the accord backed by the African Union, the United States, Britain, the European Union and the Arab League and skipped the signing ceremony at a Nigerian presidential villa.
Optimism over the deal was muted by their absence and a history of failure to live up to agreements struck over two years of negotiations in the Nigerian capital. A ceasefire signed in 2004 is in tatters.
The Sudanese Government initially rejected calls for U.N. peacekeepers to replace the thousands of African Union peacekeepers in Darfur now, but indicated yesterday it would yield once the peace treaty was signed.
Government spokesman Abdul-rahman Zuma was optimistic
earlier yesterday after the announcement that the rebel group would sign.
"The deal is peace," he said. "I think that the victory today is for Sudan."
UNITED AGAINST GOV'T
Members of the fractious rebel camp are united in accusing the central government of neglecting their impoverished region, but divided because of leadership rivalries and differing approaches.
The largest rebel group, Minni Minnawi's faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement, signed. The SLM faction led by his rival, Abdel Wahid Nur, and the smaller Justice and Equality Movement rejected the accord because of concerns security and compensation for war victims had not been guaranteed and because it called for a top presidential adviser from Darfur instead of a vice-president.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo praised Minnawi as "not only a good soldier, but a good statesman".
The peace deal calls for a cease-fire; disarmament of so-called Janjaweed militias linked to the government and accused of some of the war's worst atrocities; the integration of thousands of rebel fighters into Sudan's armed forces; and a protection force for civilians in the immediate aftermath of the war.
Political provisions include guarantees rebel factions will have the majority in Darfur's three state legislatures, but the rebels did not get the national vice presidency they had sought.
