SUDAN: An African Union (AU) attempt to rescue Darfur's fragile peace process stumbled on its second day yesterday when rebels set Khartoum six conditions for negotiations and the government immediately rejected them.
The demands by the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), rebel groups fighting for the past 18 months in the country's remote west, included disarming of Arab militias and access for an inquiry into genocide charges.
The government, facing worldwide protests over the militia attacks on civilians, immediately rejected the demands, which the rebels said had to be met within one month. Government spokesman Mr Ibrahim Ahmed Ibrahim said: "We will not accept the conditions because they are impractical ... We do agree people are being killed, but the question is who is killing them?"
"Sudan may agree to consider the conditions presented by the rebels if they are put out as an agenda for discussions, but not as a pre-requisite for talks."
Mr Ibrahim said his delegation would stay in Addis Ababa for as long as it took to reach an accord.