by Ade Obisesan
ABUJA, Aug 28 (AFP) - Sudanese government representatives and rebel leaders met to discuss a damning UN report on the humanitarian crisis in Darfur on Saturday, as African Union-sponsored peace talks entered a fifth day.
An ad-hoc committee gathered before the main plenary session to examine the United Nations paper, which accuses Khartoum of failing to honour promises to rein in the Janjaweed Arab militia and pull its army back from refugee camps.
The talks began on Monday in the Nigerian capital Abuja, but delegates took a break on Friday to prepare their reponses to the United Nations report. A fifth full session of talks was due to begin at 3.00 pm (1400 GMT).
The United Nations has threatened to take action against Sudan if it does not disarm the Janjaweed and ensure the safety of refugees before a Sunday deadline. The UN Security Council will meet on Darfur next week.
According to the report, presented this week to delegates by the United Nations and seen by AFP, a total of 1,498,802 people have been left vulnerable by Darfur`s 18-month-old conflict between government and rebel forces.
Most of those have been driven from their homes and displaced within Sudan, others have fled to neighbouring Chad or are living in their own villages in fear of attack or starvation as fighting rages on despite the talks.
"General insecurity persists with continuing violence by various armed groups, banditry and lawlessness," in spite of an April 8 ceasefire accord, the report said. The UN estimates that more than 30,000 people have been killed.
The report said the government has improved access for humanitarian workers, but that it had failed to halt attacks by its proxy militia or to pull troops out of refugee camps, as demanded by the UN Security Council last month.
"There are clear indications that Khartoum security agents are systematically harassing and intimidating the internally displaced persons in a scheme aimed at forcing them out of camps," it said.
"At nearly every IDP location in the area, Arab militias continue to patrol around camps -- reports of rape, beatings, disapperances, and looting continue," according to the UN report.
"New rounds of fighting between the parties and raids by the Janjaweed and other armed groups are among the security concerns of the IDPs and humanitarian staff," the report said. Both sides accuse the other of violating a ceasefire.
Khartoum has dismissed the UN deadline and insisted that it will seek to resolve the crisis through the Abuja talks process, which delegates have warned may go on for many days or weeks to come.
The government wants the rebel groups to be disarmed -- if necessary by a proposed African Union peacekeeping force -- in parallel with the Janjaweed, and insists that it has already set up 11 safe areas for the displaced.
The rebel groups represented in Abuja -- the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) -- say they will not stand down their forces until they win a full political settlement.
The rebels claim that the various black African minority groups in their region and other parts of Sudan are politically and economically excluded by the Arab elite which has ruled in Khartoum since independence in 1956.
"We came to Abuja hoping that we could reach an acceptable or reasonable peace," the leader of the JEM delegation, Ahmed Mohammed Tugod, told AFP.
"But with what we have heard and seen the Sudanese government doing, our hope of getting peace agreement is getting slim. The government is not serious or committed at all to solving the problem in Darfur," he added.
The United Nations estimates in its report that its agencies need 250 million dollars (207 million euros) to provide basic aid to the people of Darfur, and warns that so far donors have only come up with 97.3 million.