Two main Darfur rebel groups will not attend talks

By Opheera McDoom

EL-FASHER, Sudan (Reuters) - Darfur's two main rebel groups will not attend U.N.-African Union mediated peace talks in Libya, their leaders said on Friday, dashing any chance of an immediate deal to end 4-1/2 years of war in western Sudan.

"We decided not to go," Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) chief negotiator Ahmed Tugod Lissan told Reuters.

Lissan said the decision was made on Friday with the Sudan Liberation Army-Unity faction. SLA-Unity leader Abdallah Yehya confirmed the statement to Reuters in Darfur.

Lissan said mediators had not invited the "genuine parties that should be part of the peace process" to the talks set to begin in Libya on Saturday, siding instead 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.

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 key rebel leaders the Libya talks would go the way of a 2006 peace deal signed in Abuja, Nigeria.

Signed by only one rebel faction, that agreement had little support among the 2 million Darfuris trapped in displacement camps. Rather than bring peace, the deal triggered fresh violence, as rebels split into more than a dozen factions, some preying on aid workers and AU troops sent to the region to quell the violence but unable to protect themselves.

International experts say 200,000 people have died since rebels rose up against the government in 2003 charging it with neglect. The Sudanese government says the Western media exaggerates the crisis and only 9,000 people have died.

Darfur expert Alex de Waal called the withdrawal of JEM and SLA-Unity "a very serious setback".

"A (peace) process can be started but in the aftermath of Abuja it is essential that any agreement that is reached includes everybody. No process can be successful in the absence of JEM and SLA-Unity," de Waal said.

RAPE AND MURDER

Washington is becoming increasingly irritated with some of the players in Sudan and has threatened to impose new sanctions.

"We have been putting a lot of pressure on Sudan's government on a number of fronts but we are also watching them," a State Department official, who spoke in Washington on condition he was not named, said of the rebels.

A U.N. spokeswoman said U.N. envoy Jan Eliasson and AU envoy Salim Salim were both holding meetings in Libya ahead of the talks, including with representatives of various rebel groups.