Darfur talks set to receive boost

  Abuja- Nigeria (PANA) -- Parties to the African Union-mediated Darfur peace talks in Nigeria's capital city of Abuja may agree on the much-awaited declaration of principles (DOP) Wednesday, paving the way for the talks to delve into substantive issues.
   Final discussions on the DOP, said to be at the heart of the talks, were fixed for Wednesday following a successful consultation on the document Tuesday by one of the rebel groups, Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), and the AU mediation team.
   "We successfully held consultations today (Tuesday) with JEM on their input to the draft DOP, and the mediation has fixed a plenary tomorrow (Wednesday) by all the parties, partners and facilitators, for final discussion on the DOP," AU spokesman for the talks, Nourredine Mezni, told PANA.
He said the "breakthrough", after days of stalled negotiations, came about through the "very robust" negotiation of the head of the AU mediation team, Dr.
Salim Ahmed Salim.
   JEM had refused to give its input into the DOP in protest against the participation of Chad at the talks.
   However, the group later soft-pedalled on its stand, while the issue of Chad's participation is to be handled at a "different level".
   The rebel group has accused Chad of taking sides in the crisis, which has killed at least 180,000 people and displaced over 2 million in the past two years.
   The Sudanese government and the two main rebel groups fighting in the country's western Darfur region -- JEM and the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) -- resumed their peace talks in the Nigerian capital last week after a six-month break.
   But the talks have since been stalled by the failure of the parties to agree on the DOP, which details the issues to be discussed and the work plan.