Libya meeting focuses on Darfur rebels’ unity
July 15, 2007 (TRIPOLI) — The United Nations and African Union gathered in Tripoli on Sunday to evaluate Darfur, the war-torn Sudanese region bedevilled by fragmented rebel groups and competing peace plans.
The UN envoy for Sudan, Jan Eliasson, said the meeting aimed to set the stage for negotiations to end a conflict that has killed an estimated 200,000 people in more than four years, and to unify the competing peace plans.
“It’s time to focus seriously on the peace talks,” he told the opening session. “The unification of the rebel movements is key to the success of the process.”
“We have an enormous responsibility towards the people of Darfur,” said Eliasson, who together with AU counterpart Salim Ahmed Salim has recently led four largely fruitless missions to Sudan.
“Each day brings more suffering and destruction, but also a radicalisation on the ground,” said Salim, who deplored the militarisation of Darfur refugee camps.
Delegates agreed on the “urgent” need to prepare for peace negotiations, Said Djinnit, the AU police chief in Darfur, told AFP.
Later, two representatives of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) met briefly on the sidelines of the meeting with officials from the UN, AU and countries close to Sudan, according to Libyan deputy foreign minister Ali Abdelsalam Triki.
“We listened to them. They agreed (on the need) to begin the negotiations,” he told AFP, adding a meeting with the rebel movements was envisaged within two weeks while a September start was planned for the peace negotiations.
The two days of talks are being held amid hopes of a breakthrough to end the conflict, after the AU said Salim had secured a commitment from a rebel chief to take part in talks to create a “final and lasting peace.”
It comes as the UN examines a revised Security Council draft resolution authorising a joint peacekeeping force in Darfur for an initial 12 months to replace the embattled AU force.
Khartoum, which has been accused of sponsoring a genocidal crackdown on the rebels through its Janajaweed militia, has assured the UN it is not seeking a solution.
“The Darfur dispute should be resolved through peaceful negotiation only,” Sudanese foreign ministry spokesman Ali Al-Sadiq was quoted as saying by the Sudan Media Centre.
Since rebels took up arms in 2003 complaining of marginalisation by Khartoum, the United Nations estimates some 200,000 people have been killed and two million displaced.
A May 2006 peace deal failed to halt the fighting. Only one rebel group signed on and then promptly split into competing factions. The JEM is one group that has so far refused to sign the agreement.
UN and AU negotiators are in near daily contact with the roughly dozen rebel groups, but many have not yet agreed to join the talks, Eliasson said.
Five rebel factions said they formed a new alliance on Saturday in Asmara to present a united front for peace negotiations with Khartoum and appealed “to all other movements to unify efforts.”
But several major rebel groups, including the Sudan Liberation Movement, the Greater Sudan Liberation Movement and the JEM, remain outside the new alliance.
Many competing initiatives have been presented by neighbouring countries, including Egypt, Eritrea and Libya which could be synthesised into a single coherent approach in Tripoli, Eliasson said.
Also attending are Britain, Canada, Chad, China, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, the United States, the Arab League and the European Union as well as Sudan.
Eritrean President Issaias Afworki said in Asmara on Saturday that his country had called for “stepped up endeavours, so that the Tripoli meeting may reach a joint consensus to resolve the Darfur issue.”
The UN Security Council draft says the proposed peacekeeping force, to be known as UNAMID, will “consist of up to 19,555 military personnel and an appropriate civilian component including up to 3,772 police personnel.”
The ill-equipped and under-funded AU force of 7,000 soldiers has been unable to stem the violence and is often targeted by the warring parties.
(AFP)