Three largely related new stories that somewhat update yesterday's from AFP (updated to add the one from Reuters):
From the AP...
The U.N. and African Union envoys trying to promote a political solution to the four-year-old conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region have invited key regional and international players to a meeting in Libya in mid-July to discuss how to launch new negotiations.
U.N. deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said [on] Thursday that the July 15-16 meeting in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, will focus on a road map prepared by U.N. envoy Jan Eliasson and his AU counterpart, Salim Ahmed Salim, aimed at reviving peace talks and reaching an agreement to end the conflict.
Invitations to the ministerial meeting have been sent to Sudan, Chad, Egypt, Eritrea, and the Arab League; the five permanent Security Council nations — the U.S., Britiain, France, Russia and China — and key donors, including Canada, the Netherlands, Norway and the European Union, Okabe said.
While much attention has been focused on deploying a 23,000-strong joint AU-U.N. force to Darfur to replace the 7,000 beleaguered African Union troops now on the ground, both organizations have also stressed the importance of getting all the groups fighting in Darfur to the peace table.
Last month, Eliasson said [that] the road to negotiations has become even more complicated because of the increasing number of rebel groups. In just three weeks, the number of opposition movements jumped from nine to 12, and he said [that] that number could rise.
Eliasson presented the road map to the Security Council on June 8: The first step — getting all political initiatives on the same track and ultimately under the U.N.-AU umbrella — started in May and continued in June. The second step, conducting shuttle diplomacy to prepare for negotiations, was to start in late June and continue in July. The third step, the negotiation phase, would hopefully start at the end of the summer.
Okabe said [that] "the purpose of the Tripoli meeting is to take stock of the progress achieved over the last two months, assess the implementation of the road map, and review proposals on the way forward, especially on how to launch the negotiation phase of the road map."
More than 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been displaced in the Darfur region of western Sudan since 2003, when ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Sudanese government, accusing it of decades of neglect. Sudan's government is accused of retaliating by unleashing a militia of Arab nomads known as the janjaweed — a charge [that] it denies.
The beleaguered African Union force has been unable to stop the fighting, and neither has the Darfur Peace Agreement, signed a year ago by the government and one rebel group. Other rebel factions have called the deal insufficient.
The meeting is a follow-up to a meeting on Darfur held in Tripoli on April 28-29 which explored ways to persuade all the groups fighting in Darfur to sign a comprehensive peace agreement.
At that meeting, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi urged African, Arab and Western diplomats to work with Sudanese rebels to find an immediate solution to the crisis in Darfur.
Eliasson arrived in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, on Wednesday evening and flew to el-Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, for a series of meetings on Thursday. Salim is scheduled to arrive in Khartoum on Saturday, Okabe said.
The United Nations envoy tasked with re-energizing the peace process in the violence-wracked Darfur region has arrived in Sudan for fresh talks on how to kick-start political negotiations between the parties to the conflict.
Jan Eliasson, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Darfur, met the African Union-UN Joint Mediation Support Team (JMST) in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, to discuss preparations for the joint international meeting in Libya on the Darfur political process.
That meeting, to be held in Tripoli on 15-16 July, has been convened to assess the progress over the past months towards holding peace talks in Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have been killed and at least 2 million others [have been] displaced from their homes, amid brutal fighting since 2003.
The meeting will focus on the roadmap, the joint plan of the UN and the AU – whose Darfur envoy, Salim Ahmed Salim, is also expected to arrive in Khartoum this weekend – to solve the conflict between the Government, allied Janjaweed militias and Darfur’s many rebel groups. Peace negotiations between the warring parties mark the third phase of the roadmap.
Mr. Eliasson left Khartoum today [Thursday] for the West Darfur provincial capital of El Geneina, for talks with political parties, civil-society groups, representatives of internally displaced persons (IDPs), and local authorities involved in the Darfur-Darfur Dialogue and Consultation process.
In a related development, the new AU-UN Joint Special Representative for Darfur was scheduled to travel to Khartoum today to begin his new assignment. Rodolphe Adada will serve as head of the existing AU Mission in Sudan (AMIS) until the planned hybrid AU-UN peacekeeping force takes over. He will then head that operation.
The United Nations and the African Union plan a meeting in Libya this month on how to advance peace talks among rebel groups in violent Darfur, where 2.5 million people are homeless, U.N. officials said on Thursday.
Marie Okabe, the deputy U.N. spokeswoman, said [that] the meeting in the Libyan capital of Tripoli was scheduled for July 15-16, and would include regional and international envoys discussing the shape of the new negotiations.
Rebels in Darfur have split into more than a dozen groups since a peace deal last year with the Sudan government signed by only one of three rebel factions. Many leaders have lost control of their commanders, creating a chaotic and dangerous environment for the population, aid workers and peacekeepers.
The Darfur political talks have been led by U.N. envoy Jan Eliasson of Sweden and Salim Ahmed Salim of the African Union, who have a "road map" in an effort to achieve a solution.
"The purpose of the Tripoli meeting is to take stock of the progress achieved over the last two months, assess the implementation of the road map, and review proposals on the way forward, especially on how to launch the negotiation phase of the road map," Okabe said.
Among those invited are ministers from Chad, Egypt and Eritrea, in addition to Sudan, she said. Others include key aid donors from Canada, Norway, the Netherlands and the European Union, as well as the five permanent Security Council members -- the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China.
Last month Eliasson told the Security Council [that] the road map had three stages: combining all the initiatives under one UN-AU umbrella; shuttle diplomacy in July to Khartoum and among the rebel groups; then the start of negotiations, hopefully "during the course of the summer."
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi held a similar international meeting on Darfur in late April, and has conducted negotiations on the conflict in Chad, without reaching a deal.
Eliasson arrived in Khartoum on Wednesday and on Thursday flew to el-Geneina, the capital of West Darfur for further meetings, Okabe said, adding that Salim was expected in Khartoum over the weekend.
Khartoum has accepted a combined AU-U.N. force for Darfur of some 20,000 troops and police, to bolster the under-equipped African Union force of 7,000 in Darfur.
International experts estimate [that] 200,000 people have died in more than four years of conflict in Darfur.
The conflict flared when mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003, accusing the central government of neglecting the remote, arid western region. Khartoum mobilized brutal militias, called Janjaweed, to quell the revolt.
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