Darfur conference to start next week in Moscow

October 2, 2009 (MOSCOW) – An international conference on Darfur conflict will take place in the Russian capital next week to discuss ways to end the six year conflict in the restive province in western Sudan.

Darfur rebels took up arms in 2003 against Sudan’s government accusing it of supporting Arab tribes to seize their lands. They also demand better representation and accusing it of neglecting the region.

The conflict claimed the lives of over 300,000 people and forces other 2.7 to flee their homeland, according to the UN experts. However Khartoum rejects UN figures saying the death toll is at 10,000 only.

The international meeting which is scheduled to start on October 6-7, aims to make an extensive expertise to the conflict and consider ways to settle the conflict and seal reconciliation.

It would be attended by envoys for Sudan from the United Nations, the European Union, China, the Netherlands, the USA, Finland and Sweden as well as the African Union, the League of Arab States, international humanitarian organizations, rectors of higher educational establishments and research institutes.

Russia sought to extend the conference to the poor implementation of the Comprehensive peace agreement that ended two decades of war in southern Sudan whoever the idea was seen less realistic as UN envoy for Sudan undertakes already a tripartite mechanism to deal with the US sponsored peace deal.

(ST)