Khartoum's strategy of chaos

Encouraged by a recent statement from George W Bush, Sudan seems intent on sabotaging the fragile effort to re-start peace talks in Darfur.

Addressing visitors to the Holocaust Museum in Washington on Remembrance Day this year, President Bush launched a broadside against the Darfur rebels who refused to sign the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) almost a year ago:

They're roaming the Darfur countryside pillaging and stealing at will. They have killed civilians, they've plundered vehicles and plundered supplies from international aid workers, they've added to the lawlessness. The government in Khartoum has been unable to control the problem.

Within days, Khartoum was having a jolly good try, perhaps believing Bush was suggesting it should be controlling the problem. In so doing, it struck at the heart of the only progress made towards reviving the lifeless peace process since a majority of Darfurians rejected the DPA in May 2006: a "unity conference" organised in rebel-controlled North Darfur by the non-signatories of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) - with support and encouragement from the US, European Union and African Union - to give themselves structure and to agree on a common negotiating position for fresh peace talks. Read more >>>