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Sudan set to announce ceasefire

Sudan will announce a ceasefire at the start of peace talks with rebel groups on Oct. 27 aimed at ending the four-and-a-half year conflict in Darfur, Sudan's UN ambassador said on Monday.

Ambassador Abdelmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamed said the government decided to declare a ceasefire at the opening session to help promote the success of the talks, which will take place in the Libyan city of Sirte, the hometown of the country's leader, Muammar Qaddafi.

"On that day ... we will declare a ceasefire so that we can give the negotiators a chance to get out with an agreement on cessation of hostilities and ceasefire in the first round of the talks," he said in an interview.

"So this will be a good confidence building measure when all parties agree to a ceasefire, which we are going to announce on the 27th," the Sudanese ambassador said.

Earlier this month, the UN special envoy to Darfur, Jan Eliasson, called on the Sudanese government and rebel factions to begin the peace talks with a ceaseire agreement and urged both sides to make concessions during the negotiations.

"Fighting should not be the means for achieving political goals,' he said.

But whether a ceasefire by the government is matched by a cease-fire from all rebel groups remains doubtful.

A key Darfur rebel chief, Abdul Wahid Elnur, has refused to attend talks if they are held in Libya. Khalil Ibrahim of the Justice and Equality Movement is also threatening to boycott unless the UN and African Union (AU) can persuade the rival Sudan Liberation Army to unite its splinter factions for the negotiations.

More than 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been uprooted since ethnic African rebels in Darfur took up arms against the Arab-dominated Sudanese government in 2003, accusing it of decades of discrimination and neglect. Sudan's government is accused of retaliating by unleashing a militia of Arab nomads known as the janjaweed -- a charge it denies.

The government signed a peace agreement with one rebel group last May, but other rebel groups refused -- and many of those groups have since splintered, complicating prospects for a political settlement of the conflict.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir announced early last month that the new negotiations would take place in Libya under the auspices of the UN and the AU.

"Sudan is more than ready," Mohamed said on Monday. "A very high-level delegation will be participating."

US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad urged "all relevant rebel elements" to participate.

"The eyes of the world will be on this meeting," he said on Monday. "Everyone must have a ceasefire immediately when the meeting starts, the government and the rebel side."

"Anyone who doesn't participate or does not observe a ceasefire will have to answer to the international community, to the people of Darfur, and to the people of Sudan," Khalilzad said.

The peace negotiations will be taking place at a time that the UN and the AU are pressing to deploy a 26,000-strong joint peacekeeping force in Darfur to replace the beleaguered 7,000-strong AU force now on the ground.

Khalilzad said the US is "not satisfied" with Sudan's cooperation in making land available for the new troops -- and with its failure to approve the composition of the AU-UN hybrid force.

He urged al-Bashir to approve the force "as quickly as possible," stressing that it is predominantly African -- as Sudan demanded -- with over 90 percent of the ground troops from Africa.

Asked whether Sudan has agreed to the hybrid force, Sudan's Mohamed said "largely yes."

"We told them ... whatever battalions are ready, send them," he said. "Don't hide behind that Sudan did not give the land, or Sudan has said this country or that country" should not be in the force.

Mohamed strongly criticized the UN's decision to award a US$250 million contract without competitive bidding to the California company Pacific Architect Engineers, Inc, to build five new camps in Darfur for 4,100 UN and AU personnel.

UN spokeswoman Michele Montas said last week the complexity of the requirements and the challenging timeline mandated by the Security Council required a contractor with considerable experience in the Darfur region.

But Mohamed said the contract violates UN contract procedures and rules, and Sudan will protest to the General Assembly's budget committee and the assembly itself.

"We are not happy, and the whole international community is unhappy about how rules are here dodged on the ground like this to make happy the United States businessmen," he said.
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