Daily Darfur: No Confidence in Khartoum

Leaders of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) once again rejected efforts by Qatar to lead peace negotiations between the Darfuri rebels and the Sudanese government, following a meeting with the Qatari foreign affairs minister. The head of the JEM delegation accused Khartoum of failing to comply with a "confidence-building" agreement signed in Doha earlier this year.

"We maintain our position to not sit down with the government unless real and clear progress is achieved on the ground, in terms of prisoners, displaced people, and especially after the ouster of humanitarian organisations," Jibril Khalil, head of the JEM, told AFP.

So then what exactly are the rebels doing in Doha in the first place, if they're so intent on not negotiating?

"Our presence in Doha does not mean a continuation of the negotiations, but we came to discuss alternatives we can follow as a continuation of peace," JEM's spokesman told reporters.

That doesn't make any sense.

"The circumstances that have led to ending the negotiations still exist," he said, adding that February's confidence-building deal "had been breached on many levels."

But that does.

Quickies

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that the expulsion of aid groups from Darfur is impeding UN peacekeeping efforts in the region:

"While joint United Nations-Government of the Sudan efforts can address some of the most critical gaps in aid delivery in the coming weeks, the cumulative effects over time of the removal of such a large amount of humanitarian capacity puts well over 1 million people at life-threatening risk," he wrote in his latest report to the Security Council on the deployment of the hybrid UN-African Union (AU) peacekeeping mission in the war-torn Darfur region.

The Christian Science Monitor describes the effects of the expulsions on displaced Darfuris, the rise in attacks on aid workers in the region, and the troubling prospects of renewed rebel activity.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir told reporters that he welcomes the conciliatory tone conveyed by US Special Envoy to Sudan Scott Gration and Senator John Kerry, despite the fact that the ICC was not discussed during either visit.

Michael Kleinman poses several challenging questions about the prospect of humanitarian aid agencies being maybe-sort of allowed back into Darfur.

[Photo: 8 September 2004: Rebel fighters from the Sudanese Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) smoke rationed cigarettes at their base in Ulang, Sudan. (Scott Nelson/Getty Images)]