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Al Fasher: Darfur's two main rebel groups will not attend UN-African Union mediated peace talks in Libya, their leaders said yesterday, dashing any chance of a peace deal to end years of conflict in Sudan's vast west.
"We decided not to go," Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) chief negotiator Ahmad Tugod Lissan said.
He said the decision was made yesterday afternoon with the Sudan Liberation Army-Unity faction after long consultations.
The head of SLA-Unity, Abdullah Yehya, confirmed the statement to Reuters in Darfur.
UN-AU mediated peace talks are due to begin in Sirte, Libya today. International mediators had hoped as many rebels as possible would attend the talks and negotiate a comprehensive ceasefire with the Sudanese government.
Experts have warned that without full representation by the key rebel leaders the Libya talks would go the way of a 2006 peace deal.
Signed by only one rebel faction, that agreement had little support among the two million Darfuris trapped in displacement camps after being driven from destroyed farms and villages by the fighting in the region the size of France.
Rather than bring peace, the deal triggered fresh violence, as rebel groups split into more than a dozen factions, some preying on civilians, aid workers and African Union troops sent to the region in 2004 to quell the violence but unable to protect even themselves.
JEM's Lissan said his group and SLA-Unity refused to go to Sirte because mediators had not invited the "genuine parties that should be part of the peace process."
Instead he said mediators sided with the Sudanese government by inviting people specified by Khartoum.
"This will complicate the whole process rather than pave the way for serious negotiations," he added.
There was no immediate reaction from the African Union, the United Nations or the Sudanese government to the news.
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