Sudan accepts to compensate Darfur IDPs - AU official

Here's an interesting development. How else to breathe life into a truce and get civilians onside with Darfur's peace agreement? News of money travels fast. Holdout insurgents refusing Darfur's peace deal, insisted on certain sums of money per displaced person. Surely if compensation could be agreed, they could get behind a ceasefire agreement and hammer out details later, using non violent means? Shan't hold my breath. Darfur's so called "rebels" are greedy thugs who use women and children as cannon fodder. Give them them an inch and they take a mile. Next thing they'll insist on will be from a long list of other stuff they want before agreeing to disarm. I favour non-violent conflict resolution but think these guys deserve a slap on the head. But if money talks and saves even one child, so be it. Bring it on, enough money has been wasted on this war.

Oct 10 2006 Sudan Tribune news article [author unknown, unsourced] from Khartoum, Sudan - excerpt:

The African Union announced that Sudan accepted the individual compensation for the affected people in Darfur, saying this would help to convince the holdout rebel groups to join the peace deal.

Chairman of the African Mission in Sudan and head of Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) implementation team Ambassador Sam Ibok has affirmed that the African Union is endeavouring to convince rebel groups that did not sign DPA to join the DPA.

He indicated in a statement to the official SUNA that the government's readiness to compensate the affected people. The question of the individual compensation is one of the majors' demands of the rebel groups.

Actually, the Darfur displaced persons have lost any thing during the Janjaweed militias attacks against their villages. When official speak about peace to them, the IDPs say what peace it is. We are still under militia attacks and we have no money to rebuild our home or cultivate our land.

Ibok said there are consultations between the government and some African countries to contribute to resolving Darfur crisis, pointing out that heads of state of some African countries will arrive in Sudan in the coming days.

The presidents of Senegal, Nigeria and Gabon are to travel to Khartoum "shortly" for talks with their Sudanese counterpart Omar el-Bashir about ending the crisis in Sudan's western Darfur region, the Senegalese foreign ministry said Saturday.

He said the expected visit of an AU envoy to Khartoum in the coming days comes in the framework of the continuous consultations between the government and the AU to remove impediments affecting implementation of the DPA.

Ibok further said that the UN Secretary General and the Chairman of the AU have presented proposals to President Al-Bashir to support the AU in logistic fields, explaining that UN experts would arrive in Sudan in this context.

The AU official pointed out that Sudan's al-Bashir welcomed during meetings with his counterparts during the recent UN General Assembly session in New York any efforts aiming to boosting the African Union mission.