Libya meeting seeks to unify Darfur peace jumble
Six stories (updated originally to reflect a newer version of the AFP story; updated further to add the one from Al Jazeera [which is essentially a rewrite of the one from AFP]; updated still further both to reflect newer versions of the AFP and BBC stories, and to add the ones from Reuters, the AP, and VOA):
From AFP...
(Earlier versions are also still available.)
The United Nations and [the] African Union gathered in Tripoli on Sunday to evaluate Darfur, the war-torn Sudanese region bedevilled by fragmented rebel groups and competing peace plans.
The UN envoy for Sudan, Jan Eliasson, said [that] the meeting aimed to set the stage for negotiations to end a conflict that has killed an estimated 200,000 people in more than four years, and to unify the competing peace plans.
"It's time to focus seriously on the peace talks," he told the opening session. "The unification of the rebel movements is key to the success of the process."
"We have an enormous responsibility towards the people of Darfur," said Eliasson, who together with AU counterpart, Salim Ahmed Salim, has recently led four largely fruitless missions to Sudan.
"Each day brings more suffering and destruction, but also a radicalisation on the ground," said Salim, who deplored the militarisation of Darfur refugee camps.
Delegates agreed on the "urgent" need to prepare for peace negotiations, Said Djinnit, the AU police chief in Darfur, told AFP.
Later, two representatives of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) met briefly on the sidelines of the meeting with officials from the UN, [the] AU and countries close to Sudan, according to Libyan deputy foreign minister Ali Abdelsalam Triki.
"We listened to them. They agreed (on the need) to begin the negotiations," he told AFP, adding [that] a meeting with the rebel movements was envisaged within two weeks, while a September start was planned for the peace negotiations.
The two days of talks are being held amid hopes of a breakthrough to end the conflict, after the AU said [that] Salim had secured a commitment from a rebel chief to take part in talks to create a "final and lasting peace."
Khartoum, which has been accused of sponsoring a genocidal crackdown on the rebels through its Janajaweed militia, has assured the UN [that] it is not seeking a solution.
"The Darfur dispute should be resolved through peaceful negotiation only," Sudanese foreign ministry spokesman Ali Al-Sadiq was quoted as saying by the Sudan Media Centre.
Since rebels took up arms in 2003, complaining of marginalisation by Khartoum, the United Nations estimates [that] some 200,000 people have been killed and two million displaced.
A May 2006 peace deal failed to halt the fighting. Only one rebel group signed on, and then promptly split into competing factions. The JEM is one group that has so far refused to sign the agreement.
UN and AU negotiators are in near-daily contact with the roughly dozen rebel groups, but many have not yet agreed to join the talks, Eliasson said.
But several major rebel groups, including the Sudan Liberation Movement, the Greater Sudan Liberation Movement and the JEM, remain outside the new alliance.
Many competing initiatives have been presented by neighbouring countries, including Egypt, Eritrea and Libya, which could be synthesised into a single coherent approach in Tripoli, Eliasson said.
Also attending are Britain, Canada, Chad, China, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, the United States, the Arab League, and the European Union, as well as Sudan.
Eritrean President Issaias Afworki said in Asmara on Saturday that his country had called for "stepped-up endeavours, so that the Tripoli meeting may reach a joint consensus to resolve the Darfur issue."
The UN Security Council draft says [that] the proposed peacekeeping force, to be known as UNAMID, will "consist of up to 19,555 military personnel and an appropriate civilian component, including up to 3,772 police personnel."
The ill-equipped and under-funded AU force of 7,000 soldiers has been unable to stem the violence, and is often targeted by the warring parties.
From the BBC...
The African Union (AU) and the United Nations are chairing talks in Libya to seek a blueprint for peace in the western Sudanese region of Darfur.
The AU and the UN have laid out a three-stage "road map" which they hope will lead to peace talks between rebels and Khartoum in the next few months.
A new alliance of five rebel factions has been formed in order to present a united front for negotiations.
The Tripoli talks come as the UN says [that] the situation in Darfur is worsening.
Some 200,000 people have died in Darfur in the past four years, and two million have fled their homes, the UN says.
New alliance
A widely unpopular peace deal signed between the government and one of three rebel groups last year has been largely ineffective, and the groups have since splintered into factions.
The new rebel alliance, calling itself the United Front for Liberation and Development, agreed to unite in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, on Saturday.
It includes the Revolutionary Democratic Front Forces, the National Movement for Reform and Development, the Sudan Federal Democratic Alliance, and two factions of the Sudan Liberation Army.
The groups said [that] they had joined together to present a united front for peace negotiations with Khartoum, and appealed "to all other movements to unify efforts".
But several major rebel groups remain outside the new alliance.
Timetable talks
Representatives from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, the EU, key donor countries and Sudan's neighbours have all been invited to the talks in Tripoli, which will last for two days.
Some rebel representatives are also currently in Libya, but they will not be taking part in the talks.
The AU and the UN have been working hard to streamline competing and often-confusing peace initiatives for Darfur.
The Libyan head of AU affairs, Ali Traiki, has said [that] the meeting will seek to lay out a timetable and date for talks between the government in Khartoum and the non-signatory rebel factions.
Meanwhile, UN special envoy for Darfur Jan Eliasson remains reluctant to specify a date for the renewed talks, says the BBC's Rana Jawad in the Libyan capital.
'Situation deteriorating'
Sunday's talks come just hours after the US special envoy to Sudan, Andrew Natsios, accused the Sudanese government of resuming bombing in northern and western Darfur.
Mr Natsios urged Sudan to stop its campaign and respect a 2004 ceasefire.
He also [...] accused rebel groups of descending into "criminality and warlordism".
Meanwhile, UN reports say [that] security on the ground is also deteriorating, pointing to the rise in attacks on aid workers and AU peacekeepers in Darfur.
The talks in Tripoli come as the UN is examining a revised Security Council draft resolution for a joint AU-UN African peacekeeping operation for Darfur.
The Sudanese government has finally agreed to allow a 20,000-strong hybrid force into the region, after months of pressure from the international community.
The United Nations and [the] African Union have hosted a meeting in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, to evaluate the troubled peace process in Sudan's war-torn Darfur.
Sunday's meeting is set to discuss competing peace plans and set the stage for negotiations, said Jan Eliasson, the UN's Sudan envoy.
Eliasson and his AU counterpart, Salim Ahmed Salim, have led four recent missions to Sudan and had numerous contacts with fighting groups and neighbouring countries.
Last week, Eliasson expressed optimism that "the moment of truth" for Darfur was approaching.
On Saturday, Eliasson said: "I think [that] the next month or two are going to be absolutely crucial for the future of Darfur."
The AU said [that] Salim has extracted a commitment from Khalil Ibrahim, [Justice and Equality Movement] (JEM) group chief, "to take part in all future negotiations aimed at completing the process of creating a final and lasting peace in Darfur".
Khartoum, which has been accused of sponsoring a genocidal crackdown on the fighting groups through its Janajaweed militia, has assured the UN that it does not seek a military solution to the four-year conflict.
Ali Al-Sadiq, the Sudanese foreign ministry spokesman, said: "The Darfur dispute should be resolved through peaceful negotiation only."
The UN estimates [that] some 200,000 people have been killed in Darfur and [that] two million [have been] displaced from the region.
A May 2006 peace deal failed to halt the fighting.
Committment
UN and AU negotiators are in near-daily contact with the rebel groups, numbering around a dozen, but many have not yet agreed to join the talks, Eliasson said.
Ali Triki, who heads the Africa desk at the Libyan foreign ministry, said that "representatives of most of the Sudanese rebel movements are also in Tripoli for talks on the sidelines of the conference.
"The meeting will fix a date for the start of negotiations with the rebel groups that did not sign the Abuja accord" last year, he said.
Five rebel factions formed a new alliance on Saturday in Asmara to present a united front for peace negotiations with Khartoum, and appealed "to all other movements to unify efforts," they said in a statement.
But several major rebel groups, including the Sudan Liberation Movement, the Greater Sudan Liberation Movement, and the JEM, remain outside the new alliance.
Many competing initiatives have been presented by neighbouring countries, including Egypt, Eritrea and Libya, which could be synthesised into a single coherent approach in Tripoli, Eliasson said.
Also attending are the UK, Canada, Chad, China, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, the US, the Arab League, and the European Union, as well as Sudan.
From Reuters...
International mediators in the Darfur crisis met in Libya on Sunday to discuss progress in ending the conflict after a self-imposed late-August deadline for peace talks slipped.
At least 200,000 people are estimated to have died and 2.1 million [have been] chased from their homes since the conflict flared in 2003, when non-Arab rebels in the Darfur region of Sudan began fighting the Arab-dominated Khartoum government.
The mediators have been criticised for a lack of progress in bringing the rebel groups to talks, and there is still no decision on when and where the negotiations will take place, and [on] which of the rebel factions will attend.
United Nations peace envoy Jan Eliasson was joined in Tripoli by the envoys of the United States, the European Union and China, and foreign ministers of Chad and Sudan, Libyan news agency Jana reported.
They were expected to assess progress in meeting preconditions for the talks to begin and try to fix a new timeline.
Eliasson has said [that] he now hoped the end of next month would at least see a decision on the names of the rebel groups who will attend the new talks.
The rebel's continued failure to find a united negotiating stance has slowed progress. They split into more than a dozen armed groups after an unpopular peace deal last year with Khartoum that only one group signed.
On Saturday, five of the groups agreed to unite to end the four-year conflict, and called on other groups to join them.
From the AP...
Representatives from the U.N., [the] African Union and 18 countries were in Libya on Sunday in an effort to promote a political solution to the four-year-old conflict in Sudan's western war-torn Darfur region.
Libyan Secretary of African Affairs Ali al-Treiki, who opened the two-day meeting on Sunday, expressed hope that the representatives would agree on a solution to encourage Sudanese rebels to join a peace agreement with the government of Sudan.
The meeting hopes to "prepare an international vision on how to solve the Darfur crisis," al-Treiki told The Associated Press. He said [that] another conference would be held in September [in order] to put the last touches on an agreement.
U.N. envoy Jan Eliasson, his AU counterpart, Salim Ahmed Salim, and U.S. envoy to Sudan, Andrew Natsios, were among the representatives at the meeting. Following several opening speeches, representatives went into a closed-door session.
The meeting in Libya comes as five Darfur rebel groups agreed to join forces to push for a solution to the crisis. The new coalition, which is called the United Front for Liberation and Development, was announced [on] Saturday in Eritrea.
Representatives of some Sudanese rebel groups were also in Libya [on] Sunday, but they were not taking part in the meeting.
Last month, Eliasson said [that] the road to negotiations among rebel groups and the Sudanese government 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.
Ahmed Mohammed Lisan, a spokesman for the Justice and Equality Movement rebel group in Sudan, expressed hope that the meeting would find a just solution to the Darfur crisis. But he also warned that engaging small, splinter groups in negotiations could keep progress from moving forward.
"The influential (rebel) movements should be engaged in finding the solution, and not small splinter groups that do not truly represent the Darfur people," Lisan told the AP.
Lisan's group, which was not one of the five that formed the coalition in Eritrea, opposes the Darfur Peace Agreement, which [was] signed last year by one rebel group faction and the Sudanese government. But the peace agreement has been ineffective, because other rebel groups have rejected the peace agreement, saying [that] it is insufficient.
More than 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been displaced in the Darfur region 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.
From VOA...
The United Nations and the African Union are meeting in Libya to discuss how to advance peace talks for Sudan's Darfur region.
Representatives from more than a dozen nations have joined the two-day conference in Tripoli, which began [on] Sunday.
The U.N. envoy for Sudan, Jan Eliasson, and his AU counterpart, Salim Ahmed Salim, urged delegates to help create the conditions for successful peace talks between Sudan's government and Darfur rebels.
On Saturday, five rebel groups in Darfur region formed a new alliance [in order] to present a united front for peace negotiations with the government.
The five groups, calling themselves the United Front for Liberation and Development, urged other rebels groups to join them.
Before the [merger], there were at least 12 rebel groups in Darfur. One faction signed a peace deal with the government last year, but the agreement has done little to stop the fighting in Darfur.
Last month, Sudan agreed under intense international pressure to allow a combined United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force numbering around 20,000 troops into Darfur.
The current AU force of 7,000 in Darfur has been ineffective in stopping widespread violence.
Four years of fighting in Darfur has left more than 200,000 people dead and some two million displaced. Sudan's government is accused of arming Arab militias blamed for many atrocities in the region. Sudan denies the charge.
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