Chad leader arrives in Libya for Darfur talks
Feb 21, 2007 (TRIPOLI) — Chad President Idriss Deby arrived in Libya for talks on Wednesday aimed at bringing peace to the western Sudanese region of Darfur, the scene of one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
“We hope this crisis will find its appropriate solution,” Deby was quoted as saying by Libyan state news agency Jana after he arrived.
The talks will bring Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir together with Darfur rebels who have not signed up to a shaky peace deal.
Jana said Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki and Deby held a three-party meeting before the main talks to “consult on steps aimed at completing the signing by other movements in Darfur of the peace deal”.
The talks are aimed at trying to entice the National Redemption Front rebel coalition to join a 2006 peace deal between Khartoum and a faction of the former rebel Sudan Liberation Movement.
Divisions among Darfur’s rebel factions have been a factor in delaying an effective peace deal with Khartoum. One of the main factions complained on Wednesday it had not been invited to the talks in Libya and dismissed them as a “charade”.
Gaddafi is expected to try to persuade the NRF to join the peace deal for Darfur, where an estimated 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven from homes since 2003.
The spiral of violence in Darfur has been slowed only by a huge humanitarian operation, which aid workers warn is increasingly under threat.
Washington calls the violence genocide, a term European governments are reluctant to use and which Khartoum rejects.
Bashir has resisted pressure to authorise deployment of thousands of U.N. peacekeepers to support a 7,000-strong African Union mission in Darfur. He says the AU force is strong enough and the United Nations could give money and logistical help to a hybrid force. (additional reporting by Aziz el-Kaissouni in Khartoum)
(Reuters)