Government, rebels to meet on Darfur

KHARTOUM, Sudan — Sudan’s government and rebel groups will start talks on Oct. 27 in Libya to push for peace in violence-torn Darfur before 26,000 peacekeepers deploy there, the United Nations and Khartoum announced yesterday.

The talks, to which eight rebel groups are expected to be invited, will be mediated by U.N. and African Union special envoys, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters after a three-day visit to Sudan.

The choice of Libya as a venue came as a surprise; Tanzania had been seen as the most likely venue. Mr. Ban and other U.N. officials said the selection reflected Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s role in trying to unify Darfur rebel groups.

A joint United Nations-Sudan statement said that the world body “expresses the hope that parties will cooperate fully” with U.N. and AU mediators Jan Eliasson and Salim Ahmed Salim and that Khartoum had pledged to participate “constructively.”

Mr. Ban, who held talks with President Omar Bashir and met leaders of Darfur refugees in Sudan, urged all parties to immediately cease fire in their four-year-old conflict in the western Sudanese region and attend the talks.

International observers estimate that about 200,000 people have died and more than 2 million have been made homeless in Darfur since an uprising against purported government neglect of the region flared in 2003. Khartoum puts the death toll at 9,000.

In Washington, the United States welcomed the peace talks and said it was ready to support the effort.

“We’re encouraged by the renewed efforts to obtain lasting peace in Sudan,” said White House spokesman Tony Fratto. “The U.N., with Ban Ki-moon’s leadership, and the African Union should be applauded for working to bring all sides to the negotiating table.”

The choice of Libya as venue for the talks marks another step in its re-emergence on the world stage after years of being ostracized by the West, which accused the country of sponsoring terrorism and pursuing weapons of mass destruction.

U.N. officials said the idea to hold the talks there came up in talks between Mr. Ban and Lt. Gen. Bashir earlier this week, but they thought it had come from the African Union.

“The Libyan government has been playing a very constructive role” over Darfur, Mr. Ban said, and he and AU Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare were “of the same view that Tripoli could work as a good place.”

One key Darfur rebel, Sudan Liberation Movement founder Abdel Wahid el-Nur, has said he will not take part in fresh talks until the promised U.N.-AU peacekeeping force is in place.