El-Tahir el-Fakie - Darfur peace talks in Doha postponed until December

This week, all news reports at the website of Sudan Radio Service (SRS) have disappeared due to technical issues. Here is a report, received via email, from SRS, dated Thursday, November 19, 2009:

(Khartoum) - The Darfur peace talks in Doha have been postponed again.

The AU and UN joint mediator and the Qatari mediators issued a statement on Wednesday, saying that they will resume the talks soon, since some of the Darfur anti-government groups are in the process of 'unifying their negotiation strategy', prior to joining the talks.

The Government of National Unity says that the Doha talks will resume in December.

The adviser to the Minister of Information in GONU, Dr. Rabie Abdullaati, spoke to Sudan Radio Service from Khartoum.

[Dr. Rabie Abdullaati]: “According to our information, the talks are expected to resume in December, and that is according to what the Qatari mediators think. Because determining the venue and the scheduled day for the Darfur talks is not the duty of the Sudanese Government, but the Government of Sudan is ready to accept the demands of the Qatari mediator to participate in these talks which are expected to be decisive this time, whenever it will be scheduled.”

However, the main partner in the Darfur talks beside GONU, the Justice and Equality Movement, says that they will not engage in talks unless some pending issues are resolved.

The chairperson of JEM legislative council, Dr. El-Tahir el-Fakie, spoke to Sudan Radio Service from London.

[Dr. El-Tahir el-Fakie]: “Unless there is a clear strategy for the negotiations, unless the negotiating parties are defined, unless the civil societies and their role in the talks are defined, if all these pending issues are not resolved, there is no hope to go back to talks in December or in any other month.”

Dr. El-Tahir el-Fakie was speaking to Sudan Radio Service from London.