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Darfur rebels to hold peace talks Key Darfur rebel to boycott talks
(about 8 hours later)
The warring factions in Darfur's four-year conflict meet on Friday for talks aimed at finding common ground. A Darfur rebel leader says his Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) faction will not attend Friday's peace talks.
The meeting, which is being held in Tanzania, is being mediated jointly by the United Nations and African Union. The talks, to be mediated by the United Nations and African Union in Tanzania, are aimed at finding common ground between Darfur's numerous rebel groups.
Earlier this week, the UN Security Council approved a 26,000-strong force to deploy by the end of the year in the troubled Sudanese region. The splits are seen as a key factor in the failure of previous talks with the government to end the four-year war.
However, the exclusion of at least one key rebel figure has led to doubts about how much the talks can achieve. The talks follow Tuesday's UN Security Council resolution to send 26,000 peacekeepers to Darfur.
Commanders from more than a dozen rebel groups have been invited to the meeting in Tanzania. At least 200,000 people are believed to have died and more than 2m left homeless since 2003.
The aim is to find a common negotiating position ahead of peace talks aimed at resolving the conflict in which at least 200,000 people are thought to have died and more than two million have fled their homes. Sudan's government and pro-government Arab Janjaweed militias are accused of war crimes against the region's black African population, although the UN has stopped short of calling it genocide.
Boycott threat I would like the international community to stop the killing of my people first SLM's Abdul Wahid Mohammad Ahmed al-Nur Commanders from more than a dozen rebel groups have been invited to the meeting in Tanzania to find a common position ahead of peace talks.
A failed peace deal signed with only one rebel faction last year plunged Darfur into an even deeper crisis, causing splits in the rebel movement. "The objective of this meeting here in Arusha is to give the movements, or the various factions of the movements, an opportunity to sit together on various issues concerning the peace process," AU mediator Salim Ahmed Salim told the BBC's Network Africa programme.
This time around, negotiators will be under pressure to find an inclusive settlement. "What's important is for them to get together to try and map out a common position," he said.
But already there has been criticism that one key player in the rebel movement, widely seen as a unifying force, has been excluded. This is seen as the first step towards getting a deal with the government, so there is a peace for the 26,000 UN and African Union troops to keep.
Suleiman Jamous, who has acted as a link between rebels and humanitarian workers on the ground, has been threatened with arrest by the Khartoum government if he moves from his present location near Darfur. But the exclusion of another rebel negotiator, Suleiman Jamous, who faces arrest if he leaves Darfur, has led to doubts about how much the talks can achieve.
His absence has been widely criticised by church leaders and politicians around the world. 'Killing'
Now, some rebel commanders are threatening to boycott the meeting before it has even begun. A failed peace deal signed with only one rebel faction last year has led to increased violence in Darfur, deepening splits in the rebel movement.
Darfur today is a multiplicity of conflicts... In looking at this as a government-rebel problem, we're addressing the wrong problem Sudan analyst Julie Flint The BBC's Karen Allen in Arusha says that this time around, negotiators will be under pressure to find an inclusive settlement.
However, the SLM'S Abdul Wahid Mohammad Ahmed al-Nur has told the BBC he has no intention of going to Arusha.
"The SLM is not going to participate in this Arusha meeting. I would like the international community to stop the killing of my people first, then we can negotiate in a good place without any preconditions," he said.
"Every day there is killing, there is dying - a hundred people are dying, and being killed by the Khartoum government and the Janjaweed [militia]."
Mr Jamous' exclusion has been widely criticised by church leaders and politicians around the world.
He has acted as a link between rebels and humanitarian workers on the ground, but he has been threatened with arrest by the Khartoum government if he moves from his present location near Darfur.
Complex
Sudan analyst Julie Flint says that the peace process has little hope of success as the rebels represented in Arusha are only part of a complex situation on the ground in Darfur.
"Darfur today is a multiplicity of conflicts... In looking at this as a government-rebel problem we're addressing the wrong problem," she told BBC Network Africa.
"I would bet you money that most of the people who have died this year in Darfur have been Arab militias and government soldiers.
"The worst fighting has been between Arab groups once armed by the government now fighting each other."
After months of wrangling, Sudan agreed to the UN resolution after it was watered down.
Aid workers hope the larger peacekeeping force will enable them to deliver aid to more of those forced from their homes by the violence.
At present, many parts of Darfur are too dangerous for aid workers to operate in.