Sudan’s Beshir invited to Darfur mini-summit in Libya
KHARTOUM, Oct 5 (AFP) — Libya and the African Union Tuesday invited Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir to a mini-summit in Libya on the Darfur crisis, due to be attended by Sudan’s neighbors Chad and Egypt.
This came during a meeting between Beshir and Libyan leader Moamer Khadafi’s special envoy, Said Arabi Hefiana, and Nigeria’s junior foreign minister, Aboubakar Tanko, who is also assistant secretary general of the AU.
Hefiana and Tanko delivered the invitation in letters from Khadafi and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, the current chairman of the AU, which is sponsoring peace talks between Khartoum and Darfur rebels.
The official Al-Anbaa daily on Tuesday quoted Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail as saying the letters also dealt with the situation in Darfur and efforts by the AU to resolve the 20-month conflict there.
Hefiana and Tanko flew to Khartoum from Egypt where they delivered a message to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, also inviting him to the summit.
Following the meeting, Egyptian presidential spokesman Maged Abdel Fattah told reporters consultations were underway to determine the exact date of the summit, which was to take place “before October 21”.
The summit was part of ongoing AU efforts to “contain the situation in Darfur”, where conflict has left some 50,000 people dead, displaced an estimated 1.4 million and forced nearly 200,000 to flee into neighboring Chad.
It also aimed to “fend off the consequences of United Nations Security Council resolutions and consolidate the role of the AU in dealing with the conflict,” Abdel Fattah said.
The UN Security Council passed a resolution in September threatening sanctions against Sudan’s vital oil industry for the government’s failure to rein in pro-government Arab militias accused of atrocities in Darfur.
The visits of the Libyan and AU envoys coincided with a meeting in Ndjamena, Chad, of the AU’s ceasefire committee and representatives from the Sudanese government and the two main rebel groups in Darfur.
Ismail told A-Anbaa participants would also discuss the situation in Darfur and ceasefire violations by Sudan and the Darfur rebels.
He reiterated his government’s acceptance of the Security Council resolution on Darfur calling for an increased number of AU troops in Darfur and broadening their mandate, saying this would help in the process of confidence-building, particularly between the police and displaced persons.
Sudan recently agreed that the AU could deploy its troops in camps for displaced persons in Darfur to monitor the activities of the police.
Ismail said the move would reassure the displaced, many of who accuse the police of complicity in attacks against them by Arab militias and encourage them to move freely in and out of the camps.
The news comes as British Prime Minister Tony Blair prepared to pay a brief visit to Sudan Wednesday for talks with Sudanese leaders on several issues, including the Darfur crisis.