Sudanese delegation leaves to Libya for peace talks on Saturday
October 25, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Head of the Sudanese government negotiation delegation Nafi Ali Nafi announced on Thursday that his team would leave for Libya on Saturday to participate in the upcoming peace talks there.
Nafi, who is currently vising Djibouti, told Sudan’s official SUNA news agency that the delegation “is ready to leave for Libya’ s Sirte city on Saturday to participate in the inaugural sitting and to begin the negotiations under the mediation of the United Nations and the African Union (AU).”
He hoped the negotiations to be held in the Libyan coastal city “would be final and decisive for realizing the peace and stability in Darfur.”
“Exhausting efforts are still being exerted in order to persuade the armed movements to attend the negotiations at the scheduled time and the defined place,” Nafie said.
It is still unknown how many rebel groups in Darfur will participate in the Sirte negotiations, in view of that some major players, including Abdul Wahed Mohammed Nour, the founder of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), have announced their boycott.
The rebel movements have failed to work out a common platform so far, laying a main obstacle to the talks.
Jan Eliasson, the UN envoy for Darfur, who will co-chair the Sirte talks along with AU Special Envoy Salim Ahmed Salem, said on Wednesday that it is still unknown that which among the more than a dozen rebel groups would attend the talks as the invitations were sent out only a week ago.
Calling on all the rebel groups to show up, he said that they could continue their consultations after the talks.
(Xinhua)