From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Tue Feb 23 2010 - 10:24:01 EST
* State media: Sudan peace accord to be signed Tuesday
February 23, 2010 -- Updated 1441 GMT (2241 HKT)
*
**
*(CNN) *-- Sudan will sign a peace accord Tuesday with rebels from the
nation's volatile Darfur region, state media said.
The signing of the cease-fire agreement with the rebel Justice and Equality
Movement will coincide with a four-way summit in Doha, Qatar, the state-run
SUNA news agency said.
The summit will include the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa
Al-Thani; Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir; the president of Chad, Idris
Deby; and Eritrean President Assais Afwerki, SUNA reported.
Participants at the meeting will discuss means of achieving peace in the
region, welcoming the steps for realizing peace in Darfur, progress of the
relations between Qatar, Sudan, Chad and Eritrea and other issues of mutual
concern, SUNA said.
Tahir al-Fati, chairman of the Justice and Equality Movement's legislative
assembly, told CNN on Saturday that a preliminary document for the framework
agreement was signed Saturday in Chad between representatives of the two
sides.
Mahamat Hisseine, spokesman for the government of Chad, told CNN that the
document to be signed on Tuesday will "be an agreement as a cease-fire
between the government of Sudan and the Justice and Equality Movement."
Al-Bashir also called off death sentences against members of the rebel group
who were convicted after clashes in the Khartoum suburb of Omdurman.
A permanent cease-fire -- which, according to this preliminary accord, is to
be signed before March 15 -- will be a final step, al-Fati said.
Last year, Sudan's government and the JEM rebels signed a
confidence-building agreement in Qatar, a step toward ending the six-year
conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands.
Qatar has been mediating talks between the two sides in the Darfur conflict,
which erupted in 2003 after rebels began an uprising against the Khartoum
government.
The government launched a brutal counter-insurgency campaign, aided by
government-backed Arab militias that went from village to village in Darfur,
killing, torturing and raping residents, according to the United Nations,
Western governments and human rights organizations.
Al-Bashir is under pressure to end the fighting, particularly after the
International Criminal Court charged him with genocide last year in
connection with the government's campaign of violence in Darfur.
In the past seven years, more than 300,000 people have been killed through
direct combat, disease or malnutrition, the United Nations says. An
additional 2.7 million people fled their homes because of fighting among
rebels, government forces and allied militias.
CNN's Jennifer Z. Deaton contributed to this report.
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