Darfur peace meeting set for Libya this month

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, UN officials said on Thursday.
Marie Okabe, the deputy UN spokeswoman, said 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 UN 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 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-UN 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 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 mobilised brutal militias, called Janjaweed, to quell the revolt.