African leaders in Libya to discuss Darfur

By Edmund Blair

TRIPOLI, Oct 17 (Reuters) – The Sudanese government and rebel leaders need to be pushed to find a solution to the bloody conflict in Darfur, African foreign ministers said on Sunday ahead of a summit on the crisis.

The leaders of Sudan, Nigeria, Egypt, Chad were due at the Libyan-hosted meeting to discuss ways to end the fighting and prepare for the resumption of African Union-sponsored peace talks this month.

“It is necessary to put pressure on the two sides, the rebels and the government, because without … pressure we cannot get any solutions,” Chad’s Foreign Minister Nagoum Yamassoum told Reuters in Tripoli.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit earlier said the African states needed to work on both sides to “soften their positions”.

Ministers did not outline specific proposals to be discussed at the summit, which is due to be held late on Sunday after breaking the day’s fast during the Muslim month of Ramadan.

“We are going to accelerate and to facilitate the process of peace and the negotiation between all sides,” Libyan Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdel-Rahman Shalgam told reporters, adding that the summit was “within the efforts of the African Union”.

Some rebels who are in Tripoli but will not be attending the summit say they doubt it will make any progress.

The rebels, who launched their uprising last year, have accused Khartoum of neglecting Darfur, a vast and arid region where Arab nomads and African farmers have long skirmished over scarce resources. Rebels say Sudan has backed the Arab Janjaweed militia to attack non-Arab villages and kill their inhabitants.

Khartoum denies supporting the Janjaweed, calling them outlaws. It has says it is doing its best to quell the violence.

The U.N. Security Council has threatened Sudan with possible sanctions if it does not stop the violence, which the United States has described as genocide, a charge Sudan dismisses.

The last round of Darfur talks in Abuja collapsed in September with both sides blaming the other for the failure. The United Nations says the conflict has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis and has killed up to 50,000 people.

Rebels said they had come to Libya after being invited to explain their position to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who has championed African unity and been rebuilding his international reputation, particularly with the West.

Some rebels said the summit was unlikely to offer much tangible progress and said Egypt and Chad, who they view as siding with Khartoum, could try to undermine AU talks. But they said Libya and Nigeria were neutral and could help the process.

“We think this summit is not going to solve any problems,” said a member of one rebel group, who asked not to be named.

Chad’s Yamassoum said Gaddafi could help push both sides to agreement. “Many people think Colonel Gaddafi can have some influence on the Sudanese government and the rebels,” he said.

Both the Egyptian and Chadian ministers said the summit would support the AU role and not create a separate track.