Darfur peace talks to start on schedule without main rebels

The U.N. will press ahead with Darfur peace talks set to start Saturday, even though leaders of the main rebel groups have refused to attend and violence in the region is escalating, the lead negotiator said Wednesday.

The U.N. special envoy for the war-torn region of western Sudan, Jan Eliasson, said he had rejected requests from rebels to delay talks until they had unified their splintered groups or to wait until U.N. peacekeepers deploy to Darfur. He said the longer the wait, the greater the obstacles to peace.

“There has to be a moment when we turn the tide, a moment when we change this vicious cycle,” said Eliasson in a videoconference from Eritrea.

The envoy and his African Union counterpart Salim Ahmed Salim have been working for 10 months to bring Sudan’s government and the opposing rebel groups to the negotiating table. But as peace talks near, attacks by both Darfur rebels and the Sudanese army have increased.

The Sudanese government is sending high-level officials to the peace talks in Sirte, Libya, and says the rebels should be sanctioned for refusing to participate.

“Peace in Darfur is being held hostage to the selfish interests of those only interested in their own power,” said Sudan’s U.N. ambassador, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem.