Libya hosts ‘mini-summit’ on Sudan’s Darfur crisis

By KHALED AL-DEEB, Associated Press Writer

TRIPOLI, Libya, Oct 17, 2004 (AP) — The leaders of Sudan , Egypt, Chad and Nigeria joined Moammar Gadhafi for a “mini-summit” Sunday on Sudan ‘s Darfur region, which the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, right, talks to Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, left, during a meeting on Sudan’s Darfur region in Tripoli, Libya Sunday, Oct. 17, 2004

After sunset, the five heads of state broke their fasts for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan before heading into their talks. The summit was closed to journalists, and there was no word on the progress of their discussions.

The five countries’ foreign ministers held a meeting earlier in the day, but released no details of their talks.

The conflict in Darfur has grown since February 2003, when two rebel groups took up arms against the government. It has since grown into a counterinsurgency in which pro-government Arab militiamen have raped and killed non-Arab villagers.

Nearly 1.5 million people have left their villages to flee the violence, and tens of thousands of people have died. Some of the refugees have crossed into neighboring Chad, where conditions are dire.

Libyan Foreign Minister Abdel Rahman Shalqam said the summit would deal with security, ending the fighting, and getting humanitarian aid to people displaced by the violence.

A delegation of the smaller of Darfur’s two rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement, traveled to Tripoli but was not allowed to participate in the summit.

The group’s leader, Khalil Ibrahim, called on the leaders to persuade Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir to find a peaceful resolution, and predicted more bloodshed if a resolution is not found.

“If the government will not listen to the voice of reason, the battle will move into Khartoum itself,” he said.

The larger rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Army, did not travel to Libya. “We don’t have time to go there without knowing why we’re going there,” said SLA spokesman Abdul Latif, based in Britain.