S.Sudan government says Darfur talks unlikely before July

News Article by REUTERS posted on May 01, 2007 at 21:26:24: EST (-5 GMT)

JUBA, Sudan, May 1 (Reuters) - Efforts to bring Darfur rebel
groups to southern Sudan for peace talks with the Khartoum
government could take up to three months, an official in charge
of organising the possible negotiations said on Tuesday.

The semi-autonomous Government of Southern Sudan, which
emerged after a 2005 peace deal that ended 21 years of civil war
with the north, has set up a "task force" to contact the rebel
groups and bring them to talks in the south.

Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol told the BBC on Monday
the government hoped to meet the rebels in May in Juba, where
the southern government, headed by Salva Kiir, is based.

But the secretary of the "task force" Achier Deng Akol said
his commission has yet to contact any group, adding it may take
until July to bring them all together.

"The president (Kiir) expects us to implement our mission in
a space of two to three months, so in July if all goes well," he
told Reuters about the conference. He said funding was the
biggest challenge facing his committee.

Only one main rebel group, a faction of the Sudan Liberation
Movement, signed a 2006 peace deal with the government. The
agreement, however, has failed to stop the violence in Darfur.

The United Nations says some 200,000 people have died and
more than 2 million people displaced in Darfur since the
conflict flared in 2003 when rebels took up arms against the
government, charging it with neglect.

Analysts say the fragmentations and divisions among the many
Darfur rebel groups, along with the attacks of government forces
have hindered the prospects of peace talks despite multiple
initiatives by several parties, including neighbouring Eritrea.

The Sudanese armed forces vowed on Monday to "crush" an
alliance of Darfur rebels for killing a pilot whose helicopter
gunship, according to the army, had landed in north Darfur after
a technical failure.

The rebels say they brought down the government aircraft
while it was attacking their site during unity talks. The rebels
said they have also captured another officer.

A delegation from one rebel group, a faction of the Sudan
Liberation Movement, arrived in Juba without an invitation and
discussed the new initiative with the southern government.

The SLM delegation said on Tuesday the initiative was
positive but did not confirm the group would attend the talks.

The United States and Britain have threatened to bring
unspecified United Nations sanctions against the central
Sudanese government for rejecting the deployment of a large U.N.
force to stop the violence in Sudan's remote western region.

But southern Sudanese government, dominated by the former
rebel group Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), said on
Tuesday mechanisms should be found to exempt the south and its
booming oil industry from any possible sanctions.

"We only hope that the Government of Southern Sudan be
exempted from sanctions ... we are not directly involved in what
is happening (in Darfur)," said Martin Yak, the director of the
office of the president of southern Sudan.

The economy of southern Sudan is dependent on oil revenues
administered by the Khartoum-based government of national unity.

The oil is exported through Port Sudan in the north.

"If it is blocked it affects the Government of Southern
Sudan, so there must be a mechanism by which these sanctions are
formed," Yak added.