Darfur rebel talks may start late today

August 3, 2007 (ARUSHA, Tanzania) — Rebel factions from Sudan’s Darfur region looked unlikely to begin full-scale talks as scheduled on Friday to try and reconcile differences because most were expected to arrive late in the day, officials said.

The talks, brokered by the African Union and United Nations, have taken on a new importance since the U.N. Security Council decided on Tuesday to approve the deployment of 26,000 peacekeeping troops and police to stem the bloodshed in Darfur.

At the talks in the Tanzanian resort town of Arusha, the rebels are due to try and work out a common platform — widely seen as a vital step towards a lasting solution to the four-year-old conflict.

Only two rebel representatives — Ahmed Hussein Adem of JEM and Ahmed Ibrahim Diraig of SFDA — had arrived in Arusha by Thursday and that most were not expected to arrive until Friday afternoon.

That meant no real talks would get under way until Saturday at the earliest, said UN officials.

However, AUMIS spokesperson, Noureddine Mezni, told Sudan Tribune that the opening session is scheduled for 5:00 pm local time today; “We expect some of the rebel groups in the morining and the rest would arrive here in the afternoon” he said.

The meeting has been set up to hammer out a single negotiating position for roughly a dozen rebel groups before they enter talks with the Khartoum government to resolve the conflict in the vast western Sudanese region.

It should also produce a date and venue for the talks.

A rebel faction led by Abdallah Yahya Ahmed said on Thursday it would not attend the talks if Suleiman Jamous, a rebel figure, was not released first.

Already, Sudan Liberation Movement leader Abdelwahid Mohamed el-Nur has refused to attend the talks.

Nur’s opinion carries significant weight among Darfuris and analysts say his blessing of any peace initiative is crucial to its success.

(Reuters/ST)