The Darfur Consortium

An African and International
Civil Society Action for Darfur

Members' Publications

August 7

Source: Al Rai (Government-friendly, Jordanian daily enjoys wide circulation)
Headline: Darfur Rebels Agree on Negotiation Platform

8 Darfur rebel factions announced they agreed on negotiations platform at the end of Arusha meeting:

• Power and wealth sharing
• Security arrangement
• Land distribution
• Humanitarian issues
• To begin talks with central government in two or three months
• To stop all military action if other groups agree to it
• To allow humanitarian groups access to affected areas and people in need

Two influential rebel groups were not in attendance, Abdul Wahid Nour and Sulaiman Jamous, but international mediators said that Nour’s seat is waiting for him at the negotiations table, and they will work out a deal with the government regarding the freedom of Jamous.

Source: Addustour (Government-friendly, Jordanian daily enjoys wide circulation)
Headline: Mia Farrow Offers her Freedom for Darfur Rebel

In a letter to President Omar Al Bashir, Mia Farrow offered her freedom in exchange for that of a respected Darfur rebel leader, Sulaiman Jamous, who has been virtually imprisoned for the past 13 months at a United Nations hospital:

• He needs a stomach biopsy which cannot be performed in the hospital where he is being treated
• Sudanese authorities said they would arrest him if he left the hospital, but said it is open to talks on his release
• Farrow offered her freedom in exchange of his because he is capable of uniting the rebel groups and is known to want peace with the government
• International mediators called for Jamous release to assist with peace negotiations
• Sudan Liberation Movement – Unity faction would not participate in peace negotiations if he were not released

Source: Asharq Al Awsat (Saudi-owned Pan-Arab daily with wide circulation)
Headline: 8 Rebel Factions Agree on Platform for Talks with Government
By: Ismail Adam and Mustapha Sirri

United Nations envoy, Jan Eliasson, said that Darfur rebels agreed on a platform for talks with the government to discuss:

• Power and wealth sharing
• Humanitarian issues
• To hold peace talks with the government in two to three months
• Groups agreed the conflict could not be resolved militarily
• The platform has nine items, including the rebels’ commitment to participate in peace talks
• To hold these talks under the auspices of African Union and United Nations

International envoys said that rebel leaders talked amongst each other more than with the envoys, which explains the importance of the platform they produced

Source: Al Hayat (Saudi-owned Pan-Arab daily with wide circulation)
Headline: Khartoum Government and Darfur Rebels Prepare for Difficult Negotiations
By: Annour Ahmed Annour

Despite the fact that two influential rebel groups’ participation was not yet sure, the central government and most of the rebel groups are gearing up for Eritrea peace talks which are expected to begin in October:

• Rebel groups agreed to negotiation platform after four-day meeting in Arusha
• Central government had a lukewarm and cautious reaction to the platform
• The government wants to reach a peace deal before the deployment of hybrid force in Darfur
• And the rebels want to achieve political gains by forcing the government to make concessions on power and wealth sharing, to speed up the return of refugees, to compensated them for their losses

Meanwhile, the ruling party thinks that rebel groups have their backs to the wall because:

• Deployment of European forces along borders with Chad and the Republic of Central Africa will limit weapon smuggling
• Deployment of hybrid force will limit operation theater for rebel groups

Experts believe peace negotiations will be difficult because:

• Power sharing will be difficult because the ruling party is not willing to give up its 52% share of ministerial position
• The central government is not willing to consider self-rule in Darfur
• Refugee individual compensation will cause a lot of problems to the government

Read the above in Arabic.