CAIRO: Talks at the Darfur peace conference taking place in Sirte, Libya have hit a snag over the absence of major rebel leaders who boycotted the conference in protest over government violence and international refusal to delay talks until rebel factions formed a unified bloc. On Sunday, the second day of the UN-AU sponsored conference, efforts to persuade rebel groups to attend the conference failed. Two of the biggest rebel factions in Darfur, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Army Unity have boycotted the event. "The [boycotting] rebels want UN troop intervention in Darfur before beginning negotiations with the government, while others have less clear agendas, Deputy Head at the Institute of African Studies and Research at Cairo University Mahmoud Aboul Einen told Daily News Egypt. In his speech at the conference, Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit expressed "concern towards the future of peace and stability in our region. He added that "the decisive moment has arrived and that both the government and the rebels needed to "create the appropriate environment for the return of refugees and displaced persons. Addressing the Sudanese representatives, Aboul Gheit said that all the people of Sudan, from wherever they hailed, had the right to political participation and the right to contribute in managing their own affairs. A rebel delegate at the conference, Alhadi Agabeldour, told Reuters news agency: "The factions attending the meeting have agreed for more talks to address the participation of all those who are not attending, and today the gathering will continue in this path. The rebel delegate added that "nothing will be decided, including any endorsement of the cease-fire, until this goal is achieved: more participation of the movements. The most we could achieve from this meeting is to give more time for more participation of the other rebels. Aboul Enein said "the current phase is faltering but the end of the conference might lead to other opportunities with pressure added on the rebels. This, however, depends on the participants and the decisions they take. If they allow more preparation time and negotiations with the missing rebel groups then in this case the conference might eventually turn out to be a success. "If not, then the conference will fail, he added, "so they must extend the time for more negotiations and they must end the conference with a decision to pursue matters further with the rebels. The conference got off to an inauspicious start on Saturday with host Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi in effect shooting himself in the foot with comments in his opening statement about the conference's failure. He also said that the international community should not interfere in what was in essence a "tribal dispute. "I see that this conference must stop here, Qaddafi said, adding that the two missing factions were integral to any peace agreement and "without them we cannot make peace. He also said that "foreign intervention only makes things worse, in what was a "tribal conflict. On a more positive note the Sudanese government announced an immediate cease-fire on their part in Darfur. The head of their delegation Nafie Ali Nafie said, "The government of Sudan is proclaiming as of now a unilateral cease-fire in Darfur. We shall not be the first ones to fire arms. "The Sudanese government scored a point in its favor [with the cease-fire announcement] and proved to the international community it is willing to make peace but it is the others who haven't responded, Aboul Enien said. Previously, a peace treaty was signed in Abuja, Nigeria in 2005 but since then the rebels have split and now there are 14 factions engaged in the conflict. The Darfur conflict has been raging for four-and-a-half years, 200,000 people have been killed and two and a half million displaced since violence broke out in the region in Western Sudan.
