Sudanese official flies to Libya as Egypt pushes to unite Darfur rebels

August 9, 2009 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese Presidential Adviser, Ghazi Salah Al-Deen, who is in charge with Darfur dossier will travel tomorrow to Tripoli to discuss with Libyan officials ways to settle differences between Darfur rebel factions as Egypt is working on an initiative to unite rebel groups.

A group of rebel factions, who had already agreed since last March to negotiate with Khartoum on a common ground paper and one delegation, met last July in Cairo to discuss an Egyptian proposal to form one group.

However, during the three-day meeting in Cairo, the rebels disagreed on who would lead this new structure and its representation. The leader of United Resistance Front (URF) Bahr Idriss Abu Garda showed more support to the Egyptian proposal and said it would be better to postpone the talks till the unification.

But Abdullah Yahiya of SLM-Unity preferred to negotiate with common ground agenda and a united delegation.

Last Wednesday, the Joint Chief Mediator Djibril Bassolé ,who had been planning to gather the rebel factions of Tripoli group with a Sudanese government delegation this week in Doha, had gone to Tripoli to finalize the preparation for the first round of talks between the two parties.

But 24 hours later, Bassolé had to return to Khartoum to inform the Sudanese Presidential Adviser that the rebels finally would not go to Doha as scheduled due to differences that emerged during Cairo meeting.

Mohamed Gassim, special envoy of the Egyptian foreign minister, was Sunday in Khartoum where he met Salah Al-Deen to explain that Egypt had took the initiative in coordination with the Sudanese government.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Gassim said there are difficulties to unify the rebels “according to the opinion of some people.”

He further stressed the purpose of the Egyptian initiative that the rebels take part in the talks and speak with one voice and one agenda; particularly “they want peace in Darfur and do not speak about narrow interests but the interests of the people of Darfur in the security, stability and peace.”

Ghazi is travelling tomorrow to Tripoli for consultations with the Libyan leadership over Darfur peace process.

Amin Hassan Omer the head of the government delegation to Doha talks said Ghazi’s visit aims to find out the status quo and to encourage the rebel groups present in Libya, to participate in the Doha negotiations.

He said the mediator Bassolé and the US envoy Scott Gration would attend the discussions with the Libyan officials. He further said that Doha talks with Tripoli group would be held after the end of Ramadan, within more than six weeks.

Amin pointed out that Ghazi would see with the Libyan officials, who had succeeded to persuade the rebel groups to sign a common ground agreement in order to join the Doha process, ways to resolve the differences that emerged during Cairo meetings last July.

“We could agree on the unified structure, which is difficult to reach; but also we can agree on a common ground between the rebel factions which is at hand,” stressed the Sudanese state minister Amin Hassan Omer.

The head of the Libyan intelligence service Abdullah Al-Sanoosi, was also furious to learn what had happened in Cairo. He had attempted to pressurize the URF to settle their differences with SLM-Unity over the leadership of the unified group. But, Abu Garda left Tripoli for Ndjamena.

Egypt, which is sidelined by the Qatari sponsors and the joint mediator, seeks to find a role to play in the Darfur peace process.

The Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul-Gheit had made statements in the past stressing that the Darfur initiative crafted by the Arab league is an Arab one and not owned by one single country.

Through the latest initiative Cairo was attempting to impose its role in the peace process despite the Qatari opposition.

Earlier this year the Qatari foreign Minister Hamad bin Jasim Al-Thani speaking to Al-Jazeera TV said that his country’s mediation efforts in Darfur are aimed at removing Arab competing forces and settling the crisis internally.

Al-Thani’s statements were understood to be referring to Egypt. Relations between Cairo and Doha are strained over a separate issue of the Palestinian conflict.

Last March Sudan brushed aside an Egyptian proposal for an international conference in Darfur prompting a gradual worsening of relations between the two countries.

(ST)