Two major Darfur rebel groups said Friday they plan to boycott upcoming peace talks, a major blow to negotiations the U.N. hoped could reach a new agreement for the Sudanese region torn by years of fighting.
The absence of the Justice and Equality Movement and SLA-Unity groups means at most only a few minor rebel factions, if any, will attend the conference beginning Saturday in Sirte, Libya. The groups jointly decided upon the boycott because the mediators’ decision to invite factions they claim have little popular support, said Mohammed Bahr Hamdeen, a senior JEM leader.
“The mediation has fallen in the trap prepared by the government by making the negotiations an arena for every Jack, Tom and Harry,” said Hamdeen.
The announcement was a serious blow to potential progress at the peace talks, which are being hosted by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and mediated by the United Nations and the African Union.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack urged the rebel groups to attend and said the United States was working “to make sure that we have the maximum attendance.”
The Sudanese government has said it would attend. The principal SLA faction led by Abdel Wahid Nur had previously announced that it would not attend the talks.
“Whatever happens in Sirte without JEM and SLA-Nur does not represent Darfur’s people,” said Abdelaziz Ushar, one of JEM’s main military commanders.
Infighting among rebels
In their joint declaration, JEM and SLA-Unity called on the U.N. and AU to come to areas of Darfur under their control to discuss a new format and timing for peace negotiations.
When the peace talks in Libya were announced in September, U.N. and AU officials heralded them as an opportunity to reach a lasting peace agreement for Darfur. But infighting among the rebel factions soon made attendance uncertain, and JEM claimed Friday that those groups still attending were proxies for the Sudanese government.
“The mediators adopted the policy of bringing every single individual and group, and all these groups and individuals were created by the Sudanese government,” said Ahmed Tugod Lissan, JEM’s chief negotiator.
More than 200,000 people have died since ethnic African rebels in Darfur took up arms against the Arab-dominated Sudanese government in 2003, accusing it of decades of discrimination and neglect. Sudan’s government is accused of retaliating by unleashing a militia of Arab nomads known as the janjaweed — a charge it denies.
