KHARTOUM (AFP) – Former South African president Thabo Mbeki said on Thursday that no lasting peace could be secured in Darfur without the involvement of the Arab tribes that have been the mainstay of the region's feared pro-Khartoum militias.

"The negotiations have got to involve everybody who is relevant to the creation of peace in Darfur," said Mbeki, who heads an African Union panel of former heads of state that is due to report back to the bloc's Peace and Security Council later this summer.

"Certainly the Arab tribes are one of the constituencies that has to be involved," added Mbeki, who was widely criticised for his role in southern African efforts to reconcile the Zimbabwean government and opposition.

An uprising by ethnic minority rebels in Darfur in February 2003 prompted the Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum to recruit militias among the region's Arab tribes to implement a scorched earth policy against ethnic groups suspected of supporting the rebels.

Since abortive peace talks in 2006, the rebellion has fragmented with some minority leaders reconciling with the government and some Arab tribes siding with rebel factions.

Mbeki said there had been no progress on scheduled peace talks between the Khartoum government and the most active Darfur rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).

"There was a meeting that was planned yesterday (Wednesday) with the leadership of JEM but we got the information the day before yesterday that indeed fighting had broken out in the area where this meeting was supposed to have taken place," he said.

Qatari-brokered talks between the Sudanese government and Darfur rebels have been postponed for two months, mainly because of disagreements over an exchange of prisoners, a senior rebel leader said last week.

JEM signed a confidence-building deal with the government in February intended to pave the way for a conference engaging all rebel groups and pro-government militias in the search for peace after six years of war.

But the talks broke down after an international warrant was issued in March for the arrest of Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir on war crimes charges.

They resumed in May in the Qatari capital with British, Chinese, French, Russian and US envoys attending.

The United Nations says up to 300,000 people have died in Darfur and 2.7 million fled their homes since the rebellion started. Sudan says 10,000 have been killed.

< Prev		Next >