A U.N. panel of experts has suggested that Sudan delay elections due for July 2009 by at least four months because of expected heavy rains and logistical problems, a senior U.N. official said on Friday.

The first democratic poll in more than 20 years is to be held after a 2005 peace deal that ended a north-south civil war in Africa’s biggest country.

But a U.N. panel told the government of semi-autonomous south Sudan it might be better to push the election to the end of the year, or even into 2010, the U.N. regional coordinator for southern Sudan, David Gressly, told reporters.

Any delay could face opposition from southerners worried that they may also have to wait longer for a referendum on southern secession, promised in 2011 under the same north-south peace deal.

But Gressly said it would be impossible to run an election during south Sudan’s long rainy season which usually starts around June.

He added it would be problematic to get a poll going before the next rainy season, given delays in setting up key electoral legislation and bodies like the recently created electoral commission.

“We have provided our own guidance, proposing using the coming dry season (November to May) more for a registration process, and then the following one for elections and the following one after that for the referendum,” Gressly said.

He said the guidance, prepared at the request of south Sudan’s semi-autonomous government, did not amount to an official recommendation to change the election date.

He added that organisers also needed to factor in enough time to prepare voters for the complex elections that will involve up to 12 separate voting papers, covering ballots for everyone from the country’s president to members of state assemblies.

Both northern and southern leaders have so far publicly stressed the poll will take place before the July 2009 deadline.

Election Updates

The prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, said the warrants would involve attacks on African Union peacekeepers in September 2007, in which 12 were killed. Speaking in The Hague, the prosecutor did not disclose the names and number of suspects, but earlier he had said that two rebel factions carried out the attacks.

The court previously issued arrest warrants for a former government minister, Ahmad Harun, and for Ali Kushayb, a leader of the government-backed janjaweed militia. In July, Mr. Moreno-Ocampo requested the arrest of the Sudanese president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, but the court is still reviewing the evidence and has not issued a warrant for him.

NYTimes.com

Darfur rebels dismissed the moves, saying they don’t trust al-Bashir and want to see disarmament of the feared janjaweed militias before agreeing to a ceasefire.

Al-Bashir’s announcement is part of a high-profile campaign by Khartoum to display its readiness amid attempts to cobble together new Darfur peace negotiations mediated by the Arab nation Qatar and a U.N. envoy. It comes as the Sudanese president is trying to fend off possible genocide charges by the International Criminal Court over atrocities in Darfur.

Up to 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven from their homes in the vast region of western Sudan since fighting erupted in early 2003. The war pits troops from the Arab-led Khartoum government against ethnic African rebels, and Khartoum is accused of backing Arab militias known as janjaweed said to have carried out widespread atrocities against ethnic African civilians.

The government has repeatedly called ceasefires in Darfur in the past but they have quickly broken down.

Al-Bashir urged rebels to join Khartoum in peace talks, speaking at a conference of Sudanese political parties, southern Sudanese and some Darfur tribal leaders that he convened to recommend ways to move ahead with peace.

“I am sending a special message to my brothers in the armed movements to come together (with us) for a joint single word, through which we would be able to realize peace … security and stability for our people,” he told the gathering, known as the Darfur National Forum.

He announced his “agreement to an immediate, unconditional ceasefire between the armed forces and the warring factions, provided that an effective monitoring mechanism be put into action and be observed by all involved parties.”

The call appeared to stop short of ordering a unilateral ceasefire by government troops in Darfur.

Al-Bashir promised an “immediate campaign to disarm the militias and restrict the use of weapons among armed groups.” The disarming of the janjaweed has been a top demand of Darfur rebels.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday he welcomed al-Bashir’s ceasefire proposal and intention to disarm the militias.

Ban said in a statement that “the international community continues to have high expectations” that Sudan and rebel movements will make “concrete progress” toward peacefully resolving the conflict.

In another gesture, al-Bashir also said his government is willing to pay compensation to Darfurians who lost their homes to help them return and rebuild. He promised to “empower” the U.N.-African Union peacekeeping force that is deployed in Darfur “to carry out its role effectively.”

A top official in the peacekeeping force, known as UNAMID, welcomed the agreement and said the U.N. and Qatar would now approach rebel leaders to try to bring them into a cease-fire.

“The government has put something concrete on the table for discussion. It puts on the table … almost all the issues the rebels have demanded,” Ali Hassan, the head of UNAMID in southern Darfur, told The Associated Press.

But Darfur rebel leaders rejected any immediate ceasefire.

Abdulwahid Elnur, the exiled leader of the Sudan Liberation Movement, said the rebels cannot accept any ceasefire until the janjaweed are disarmed.

“We need action not words from them,” he told AP. “It’s not a matter of the ceasefire, it’s a matter of stopping the genocide … We don’t trust these people.”

Suleiman Sandal, a top commander from another main rebel force, the Justice and Equality Movement, said “this government is not serious about peace … and is preparing for war on all fronts.” He rejected any ceasefire unless it was part of a “framework agreement.”

The Associated Press:

The ministry blamed the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), a Darfur rebel group, for seizing and killing the Chinese. A London-based JEM official denied the group was involved.

“Five were murdered. Two were able to escape with minor injuries,” ministry spokesman Ali al-Sadig said. The two workers who escaped were now in the hands of the government, Sadig said while the kidnappers were still holding the remaining two. “This incident happened without any provocation,” he said.

The government and rebels routinely trade accusations of human rights violations in Darfur, where a bloody conflict has raged since 2003.

The kidnapping was the third such incident in the energy-producing state of South Kordofan in the past year. Analysts say the underdeveloped region, which borders Darfur, could become another violent flashpoint.

The nine workers were snatched near a small oil field where they were doing contract work for the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company (GNPOC). The company is a consortium led by China’s CNPC that also includes India’s ONGC, Malaysia’s Petronas and Sudan’s state-owned Sudapet.

Sadig said the kidnappers had demanded that Chinese oil firms leave the region.

“STRONGLY CONDEMNED”

The Chinese embassy in Khartoum could not be reached for comment, but China’s Xinhua news agency said the embassy “strongly condemned” the killings. China is the biggest foreign investor in Sudan and one of Khartoum’s strongest allies.

El-Tahir el-Feki, a JEM official, said the group had not authorized any attack on Chinese workers.

“Maybe there are elements who say they are members of the group without its knowledge,” he told Reuters.

The Darfur rebel group has said it had forces in the area and warned that oil workers were legitimate military targets.

JEM seized five oil workers — an Egyptian, an Iraqi and three Sudanese — in October 2007 but released them.

Local tribesmen have identified the head of the kidnappers as a man called Fudeili, a member of a sub-clan of the Arab al-Misseriya tribe called Awlad Omran.

Local officials said the kidnappers probably wanted oil money. The consortium produces more than 300,000 barrels of crude per day (bpd) in Sudan’s Blocks 1, 2 and 4. Sudan produces about 500,000 bpd of crude.

Abdul-Rasoul al-Nur, a former governor of Kordofan and a Misseriya leader, said his tribe condemned the killings.

“Even if the demands (of the captors) were just, the wrong methods obstruct reaching those just demands. This is a huge mistake,” he told Reuters.

The International Crisis Group think-tank said last week the a 2005 peace deal that ended two decades of war between north and south Sudan was at risk in South Kordofan “where many of the same ingredients” that produced the Darfur conflict existed.

South Kordofan is inhabited by Arab and African tribes who were mobilized during the north-south war and who remain polarized along tribal and political lines, the group said.

The Sudanese Foreign Ministry said Sudanese authorities would take “more security measures” to protect Chinese and foreign workers.

A group of kidnappers seized four Indian oil workers and their Sudanese driver in May. Three men managed to escape and one was released. Another man is believed dead.

Kidnappers kill Chinese hostages in Sudan – Yahoo! News

Mohamed Abdullah, a commander with a faction of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) headed by Abdel-Wahed Mohamed el-Nur, said his group lost two fighters but captured a number of government vehicles and weapons in the clash on Thursday.

A spokesman for the Sudanese military could not confirm the incident but said the army had troops operating in north Darfur.

Noureddine Mezni, a spokesman for the joint United Nations/African Union peacekeeping force (UNAMID), said: “We have initial information about clashes in the area. We are monitoring the situation.” He did not give further details.

The clashes came a week after Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir launched a national initiative to end the five-year-old conflict. Rebel groups boycotted the event.

Suleiman Jamous, a leader of another SLA/Unity group in north Darfur, said both forces clashed when they confronted each other “by accident” on a road near the area of Anabaji.

Abdullah and Jamous said government forces overtook a rebel base in the Helf area in north Darfur on Thursday night.

“There will be retaliation,” Abdullah told Reuters.

International experts estimate that 200,000 have died and 2.5 million fled their homes since mostly African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated government in 2003, charging it with neglect. The government says 10,000 have lost their lives and accuses the international media of exaggerating the crisis.

Reuters.com