Sudan - Darfur and Largest Rebel Faction Sign Pact to End Carnage

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Sudan and Largest Rebel Faction Sign Pact to End Carnage

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/04/world/africa/05darfur.web.html?hp&ex=1146888000&en=4b655af1df70f021&ei=5094&partner=homepage

By LYDIA POLGREEN and JOEL BRINKLEY
Published: May 4, 2006

KHARTOUM, Sudan May 5 —

The government of Sudan and the largest rebel faction fighting in the
conflict in Darfur signed a pact today to end the carnage there.

But the leader of second-largest faction stormed out of the signing ceremony moments before it began, casting uncertainty over whether the peace accord, hammered out in three days and nights of marathon talks between top western and African diplomats, would survive.

As he presided over the brief ceremony in Abuja, Nigeria's president called the leader of the rebel faction signing, Minni Minnawi, "not only a good soldier but also a good statesman."

He said that efforts to persuade the other two rebel factions to join the accord would continue.

"Those who did not sign, we will continue to appeal to them," Mr. Obasanjo said. "Unless the right spirit, unless the right attitude and the right disposition is there, this document is not worth the paper it is signed on."

Robert Zoellick, the United States deputy secretary of state, drove the negotiations to this partial victory. He said this morning that some followers of one of the rebel leaders who refused to sign had been complaining about his decision. And a senior State Department official traveling with Mr. Zoellick said the Untied States and the other nations intended simply to ignore the other two groups, the Justice and Equality Movement and a small branch of the dominant Sudan Liberation Army.

Mediators applauded and patted each other on the back as the agreement was announced in Abuja, Nigeria, this morning. The African Union's chief negotiator, Salim Ahmed Salim, called it "a big day for the people of Darfur.

While officials said they would ignore the two dissenting groups, they also said they would continue trying to persuade them to sign the agreement. If the pact does not ultimately include the other rebel factions, it will face deep and immediate peril. No one is certain how many troops the smaller groups have, and their leaders refuse to say.

Snip-->
With the agreement of one rebel faction, negotiators hoped that the other groups would jump on board "to avoid getting left behind," said one diplomat, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the talks.

Late on Thursday, the Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, had invited all the negotiators to his presidential villa to provide a formal setting for the signing. Kofi Annan, the secretary general of the United Nations, called an emergency meeting on Sudan and asked representatives from 18 nations, plus the European Commission, the Arab League and the African Union, to press both sides to reach an agreement. <--snip


Nigeria's president, Olusegun Obasanjo, rejoicing with members of the
Sudanese government delegation at the peace talks today in Abuja, Nigeria.


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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/04/world/africa/05darfur.web.html?hp&ex=1146888000&en=4b655af1df70f021&ei=5094&partner=homepage