Next steps to peace in Darfur

The humanitarian disaster in Sudan's Darfur region, which the US labels a "genocide," has been growing steadily worse since it began in 2003. But it may have just turned a corner toward peaceful resolution.

The plainspoken United Nations' humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland, whom Sudan barred last month from visiting Darfur, arrived there Sunday for a critical assessment of the current situation. His visit comes two days after Sudanese authorities and Darfur's main rebel group reached a landmark peace agreement.

Observers say that the most important result of the deal is that it could pave the way for a UN peacekeeping force to enter Sudan. In the past few days different spokesmen for the Sudanese government have confirmed that the government would now at least consider allowing UN peacekeeping troops on the ground, something Khartoum had flatly rejected before Friday's deal.

But two smaller rebel groups rejected the deal, and John Prendergast, head of the International Crisis Group's Africa Program, remains skeptical about the sincerity of Sudan's government. "The agreement is not insignificant ... but it's going to require a strong effort by the international community to ensure even minimum compliance," he says. "It's going to be a year before there are enough peacekeepers on the ground for real coverage."

Mr. Prendergast points out that the Sudanese government has previously shown a willingness to sign treaties (during a rebellion in the south of the country) and then delay implementing them.

Meanwhile, Darfur refugees in camps just across the border in eastern Chad were far from optimistic about the peace deal. "I don't think the agreement will bear fruit in the end," says refugee Zakaria Mahamat. "People will blame those rebels that won't sign, but I think they are refusing because it's not a good deal for the people of Darfur. I want peace as quickly as possible but it has to be something that will last."

Crowded around a battered radio perched among slabs of yellowing meat at a butcher's stall in Gaga, the newest of 12 refugee camps strung across arid eastern Chad, Darfur refugees Friday listened to the latest developments at talks designed to bring peace to the region they fled in terror.

Mr. Mahamat has escaped the clutches of the Khartoum-backed janjaweed militia more than once. He fled his village first, then a camp for the displaced in Sudan. Even when he had crossed the border and was holed up in a hamlet in neighboring Chad, he says the horseback militia pursued him, and he went on the run again.

Now at the Gaga camp, he is in no rush to turn around and head home - peace deal or no peace deal. "I won't be going back straight away. I want to see whether the reality on the ground really changes first," he says.

Skepticism reigns in the camp as to whether Khartoum will stick to its promise of disarming the janjaweed that have waged a campaign of slaughter and rape, looting, and torching for the last three years.

"I'd like to see a UN force in Darfur, I won't have the confidence to return without that," Mahamat says.

Rebels, Sudanese officials, and diplomats pounded out the peace deal in Abuja, Nigeria last week as midnight deadlines slipped by and journalists slept on marble floors outside locked meeting rooms. Finally, faced with written assurances from President Bush that the peace deal had full US support, the leader of the largest rebel group reluctantly signed a cease-fire with the Sudanese government, although two smaller groups rejected the deal.

Sounding a cautiously optimistic note, US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick said the agreement represented "an opportunity for peace." He went to Nigeria after talks stalled between rebels and the government over security issues. Eventually both the Sudanese government and the largest rebel faction, the Sudan Liberation Movement, led by Minni Minnawi, signed the deal on Friday. Two smaller groups refused, with the leader of one, Abdulwahid El Nur, storming out of the signing ceremony.

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