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Quote: Darfur rebels given more time to sign peace deal Mon May 15, 2006 4:42pm ET By Tsegaye Tadesse ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - The African Union on Monday gave two rebel factions a further two weeks to sign a peace deal for Sudan's Darfur region while threatening possible international sanctions if they did not endorse it. Only one of the three Darfur rebel factions signed a May 5 accord with Khartoum to end fighting that has killed tens of thousands of people, and officials fear the two holdouts could instigate violence to scuttle the deal. Alpha Oumar Konare, chairman of the African Union (AU) commission, urged a faction of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) led by Abdel Wahed Mohammed al-Nur and the smaller Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) to sign the deal unconditionally. "Should they embark on any action or measure likely to undermine the Darfur peace agreement, especially the ceasefire provisions, the (AU) should take appropriate measures ... including requesting the U.N. Security Council to impose sanctions against them," he said in a statement. The warning came as the AU's Peace and Security Council met in Addis Ababa to discuss how to push forward the peace process in Darfur, which U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan says is the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Nigerian Foreign Minister Olu Adeniji, chairman of the AU Peace and Security Council, later said the two hold-out rebel groups had been given more time to accept the peace accord. "The extension of the signature for those who didn't sign the agreement will be laid open until the end of May, after which, failure to sign will indicate non-commitment to the peace process and the AU will take a decision," he said. The peace agreement has provoked violent protests in Sudan by refugees who say it is not enough to protect them, and criticism from the Sudanese opposition that the parties were pressured into signing an ill-considered deal. MORE CONCESSIONS But one of Nur's close advisers said the international community should press Sudan's government to grant some extra concessions to make the deal more acceptable to the rebels. "If we agree on this document as it stands because of pressure from the international community, we will not be able to return to our people," said Babiker Mohamed Abdallah. "If the government is not serious, two weeks is not enough. If it is serious, even two days is enough," he told Reuters in the Nigerian capital Abuja. Although Nur is weak militarily, he represents Darfur's largest Fur tribe. Nur demands greater compensation from Khartoum for Darfur war victims, more political posts for the movement and greater SLA involvement in the disarmament of Janjaweed militias. "When I am assured that the supplementary document has addressed our demands and been attached to the agreement, I shall then attach my signature to the Darfur Peace Agreement," Nur said in a letter to the AU on Monday. In another sign of a concerted drive by the AU to pull the rebels into the deal, its chief Darfur mediator warned Nur he risked becoming irrelevant unless he accepted a deal already signed by Minni Arcua Minnawi, leader of the biggest SLA group. "In every situation where people have not been on board, eventually they will have to come on board or become irrelevant," Salim Ahmed Salim told Reuters Konare called for more AU troops to be sent to Darfur and urged Khartoum to produce a plan to disarm pro-government Janjaweed militias accused of a campaign of murder and rape that has driven more than 2 million people into camps in Darfur and neighboring Chad. Adeniji later said the AU had decided to begin handing over its peacekeeping force in Darfur to a UN-led operation as it announced two months ago. The AU said in March that it would extend its mission in Darfur until September 30 to allow more time to transfer control to U.N. forces. Annan said the AU mission should be turned over to the United Nations as soon as possible, but until then rich nations must provide immediate funding for the AU forces. Sudan had rejected a U.N. deployment in Darfur before a peace deal, and European Union officials said last week Khartoum now appeared to be reconsidering allowing U.N. troops. Jan Egeland, the U.N.'s top humanitarian official, predicted catastrophe if the deal was not implemented. "If it is not, it will mean a downward spiral which will get totally out of control and go into the abyss," he said from Geneva. (Additional reporting by Estelle Shirbon in Abuja and Robert Evans in Geneva) © Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.