UN Secretary General proposes 11,000 UN peacekeepers to deter cross-border attacks in E Chad

Feb 24 2007 MaximsNews Network - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has proposed sending some 11,000 U.N. peacekeeping troops to protect civilians and deter cross-border attacks in eastern Chad from forays by Sudan-based militia.

Photos - see Chad/Sudan/CAR map: A dry river bed delineates Chad-Sudan border

Chad/Sudan/CAR map: A dry river bed delineates Chad-Sudan border

1. JANJAWEED AND CHAD REBELS: Chad says Sudan government-backed militias are attacking villagers in Chad. Some 200,000 Darfur refugees are also in Chad. Chad also accuses Khartoum of backing the Union of Forces for Democracy and Development (UFDD), which is a coalition of small armed groups and army deserters who have launched cross border attacks from Darfur. These attacks have raised communal tensions in eastern Chad, which has a similar ethnic make-up to Darfur.

2. DARFUR REBELS: Sudan accuses Chad of backing the Darfur rebels. There have also been allegations that many of these rebels have become assimilated into Chad's national army - a charge Chad's government denies. Some Darfur rebels come from the same Zagawa ethnic group as Chad's President Idriss Deby. Chad has called for United Nations peacekeepers to patrol the border. Sudan is resisting any UN deployment.

3. CAR REBELS: Chad says it will send troops to help CAR fight the rebels. The Central African Republic (CAR) says Sudan backs Union of Democratic Forces for Unity (UFDR) rebels who have seized towns in CAR. The government says the UFDR are operating from Darfur with the support of the Sudanese authorities. French forces have already deployed against CAR rebels in support of the government

4. CHAD TROOPS: CAR says Sudan backs rebels who have seized towns in CAR. It accuses Sudan of attempting to destabilise both Chad and CAR and has suggested an anti-Sudan alliance. Almost 50,000 refugees have arrived in Chad in recent weeks, fleeing fighting in CAR.

Source: BBC special report 6 Dec 2006.
- - -

Dry river bed delineates Chad-Sudan border

Sudan and Chad seem as one vast dusty plain, no fences or signposts. Reminiscent of a bygone era in North America's Wild West.



Photo: Darfur rebels make little note of the border between Chad and Sudan as members of one rebel unit from the Sudan Liberation Army play cards in the dry river bed that delineates the border between the two countries on Friday, Feb. 16, 2007. Attacks on civilians and aid groups have intensified sharply along the Chad-Sudan border in the last two weeks, as the violence in Darfur continues to spill over into its African neighbor and cross-border guerrilla raids mount. (AP Photo/Alfred de Montesquiou)
- - -

Darfur rebel on Sudan-Chad border wearing a captured Sudanese army officer's uniform

Some news reports say Darfur rebels steal most of their weapons and trucks from the Sudanese army.



Photo: A section leader from the Sudan Liberation Army, center, wearing a captured Sudanese officer's uniform with three stars, and other rebels are pictured along the Chad-Sudan border on Saturday, Feb. 17, 2007. (AP Photo/Alfred de Montesquiou)
- - -

JEM's Ibrahim is in Chad

The head of one Darfur's main rebel groups said he is willing to call a cease-fire if the Khartoum government stops attacks on civilians in the war-torn region and agrees to re-negotiate the Darfur peace deal -- but warned of a new offensive if it fails to do so. Khalil Ibrahim heads the Justice and Equality Movement, which along with most other rebel groups have refused to sign onto the Darfur Peace Accord.

Photo: [Insert link]: The head of one Darfur's main rebel groups Khalil Ibrahim is seen during an interview in the town of Abeche in eastern Chad, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2007. (AP Photo)
- - -

Chadian soldiers patrol Adre and Abeche, Chad



Photo: Soldiers from Chad's National Army man a tank in Adre, bordering Sudan's Darfur region, February 5, 2007. The leaders of Sudan and Chad said they agreed on Wednesday to redouble efforts to end violence spilling over their border from Darfur. (Emmanuel Braun/Reuters)



Photo: Soldiers from Chad's National Army patrol the road to Abeche in eastern Chad, February 7, 2007.
- - -

Tora Bora fighters ride on top of a pick-up in Adre, Chad



Photo: Tora Bora fighters, members of a Sudanese group long famed as arms smugglers operating along Sudan's borders with Chad and Central African Republic, ride on top of a pick-up in Adre, February 6, 2007. A dawn concerto of war woke this scruffy Chadian border town of mud-brick houses and dusty streets on Tuesday, sending the few residents who were out scuttling back to their homes. (Reuters)

Tora Bora fighters dress up after taking bath at small lake in Adre, Chad



Photo: Tora Bora fighters, members of a Sudanese group long famed as arms smugglers operating along Sudan's borders with Chad and Central African Republic, dress up after taking bath at small lake in Adre, bordering Sudan's Darfur region, February 6, 2007. (Reuters)

Tora Bora fighters sit in a vehicle in Adre, Chad



Photo: Tora Bora fighters, members of a Sudanese group long famed as arms smugglers operating along Sudan's borders with Chad and Central African Republic, sit on a pick-up track near a small lake in Adre, February 6, 2007. (Reuters)
- - -

Ugandan LRA rebels move towards CAR

See Feb 24 2007 Reuters report: Ugandan rebels move towards CAR - Sudanese official.



Photo: A farmer examines raw grain cotton in a plantation outside Bossangoa, Central African Republic, February 13, 2007. The country's cotton harvest has fallen to less than one tenth of the harvest in the late 1990s, but now a government body has taken control of the industry and hopes to revive the sector, which is an important source of foreign exchange for the deeply poor country. Picture taken February 13, 2007. (Reuters)

UPDATE: See Feb 25 2007 news report: UN Secretary General proposes 11,000 UN peacekeepers to deter cross-border attacks in E Chad

Sudan-specific websites

Rift Valley Institute - Sudan Internet Resources 2006

Amnesty International Links page

SORA News - tabs at top of page lead to more links.

Lord Soley of Hammersmith on Iraq

Note to self, for future reference on issues of intervention. As I recall, when it came to Iraq, the UK, right from the start, told the US not to get rid of the Iraqi army but they refused to listen. Lord Soley, in his latest blog entry on Iraq says the question of intervention will be with us for some time, Iraq will not be the last difficult case. Here is an excerpt from his great speech on Iraq (see in full at Lords Hansard text for 22 Feb 2007):

It is not impossible that we will have other Kosovo-type problems around the borders of Europe, so we really do need to think about this issue of intervention.

The noble Lord, Lord Ashdown, yesterday made the point that intervention involves a plan before, a plan during the military operation and a plan after it. I do not think that it is true to say that the United States or the British Government did not have a plan for post-conflict - they did. The trouble is - and the noble Lord, Lord Jay, made this point very well - that there was not enough focus on it here, for reasons that the noble Lord, Lord Butler, has given. But, more importantly, two key mistakes were made.

The first mistake, to which a number of noble Lords have referred, was that there was a lack of sufficient numbers of troops on the ground to deal with policing the situation. The other mistake was profoundly important. If you are going to make the assumption that we have lost Iraq, although I do not think we necessarily have, the period in which we lost it was between 16 and 23 May 2003. Why? Because on 16 May Paul Bremer, who was put in charge very suddenly by the United States, took the decision to get rid of the whole civil service in Iraq just because it was B'athist. Before that, of course, you could not get a job in the civil service in Iraq unless you were a member of the Ba'ath party - so there were good and bad people in that civil service structure. Then, on 23 May, the truly disastrous decision was to get rid of the Iraqi army, sending all those people with training and knowledge of weapons and who knew where the weapons were into long-term unemployment without any pay. At that stage, we lost control on the ground.

The rest is history. See? The Americans didn't know best, like they don't know what's best for Sudan. By the way, after Iraq defied countless UN resolutions, I supported intervention in Iraq and still do.

New Arab League office in southern Sudan

The Arab League Administrative and Financial Standing Committee on Saturday approved the appointment of Mohammad Munsef Amin Murad as head of the UN mission in the southern Sudan area of Juba for a four-year mandate. A final statement issued at last year's Arab Summit in Khartoum had recommended that an Al office in Jouba should open as soon as possible. - KUNA (via SO) 24 Feb 2007.

AU says it does not have the capacity to end Darfur rebellion

Spero News article (originally appeared in Africa Reports, produced by IWPR, the Institute for War and Peace Reporting). Excerpt:

Fiona Lortan, senior political officer in the AU's defense and security division, told IWPR that the situation in Darfur will not improve unless the government accepts the entire "hybrid" peacekeeping package. "The AU does not have the capacity to end the conflict," she said. "If the situation is not resolved soon, the suffering and death toll in Darfur will increase. It is clear that the AU is not able to keep the government forces and the different rebel groups in check. They need the support of the UN as soon as possible."

Werner, a South African Military Observer currently serving in Darfur, blogged the following at Soldier of Africa 15 Feb 2007:

Another Day in "Paradise" - "I have been in Darfur long enough now. Time to go home." That is the attitude of most guys who have been here for more than eight months. For most of us it is a matter of getting the days over. I also hope that the UN takes over this mission sooner rather than later. The presence of the AU has probably prevented genocide from continuing, but it is too uncoordinated and mismanaged to do the job properly.



Photo: Maj Nawa, Maj Askvik and Snr Supt Elder, and I was taking the photo. We were trying to figure out exactly what the AU wants us to do in the JOC (Joint Operations Centre). At this stage we do not have a mission statement.

I think it is a scandal that African peacekeepers are still not paid correctly on time. Isn't there a law against such a thing? These people are paid to risk their lives to help others, miles away from home, and they're not getting paid! On 4 Feb 2007, Werner writes:

Dreaming of our Pay - I thought this photo to be appropriate since it seems we have a better chance of going to the moon than to get our money on time. When I returned from my leave in early January I received my money for October and that was the last money I have seen. This situation of late payments by the AU has been ongoing for all the time I have been here and has already forced me to have to change my leave plans once. A while back a friend of mine had to loan a woman $600 since the money she was entitled to was not yet paid to her and that would have meant she would have had to miss spending Christmas with her husband and children even though she was entitled to and had already planned her leave for this occasion. This is only one of many such problems caused to loyal members of AMIS and it seems as if nobody can or wants to change the current state of affairs.

Who is accountable for this state of affairs? And why are they getting away with it - is it corruption or incompetence or both? Hundreds of million pounds have been donated by Europe to make African peacekeepers in Africa a reality.

Head of International Committee Red Cross sees "gross violations" by all sides in Darfur

The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Jakob Kellenberger, speaking after a five-day trip to Sudan which included stops in Darfur, said all sides of the conflict were committing human rights violations against civilians.

"It is a context of very gross violations of international humanitarian law, with a main responsibility on the government side, but not only on the government side. There have also been gross violations on the side of armed groups," he said.

Full story by Reuters (Stephanie Nebehay) 23 Feb 07.

Sudan's Bashir: "We're all Africans, we're all black - talk of Arabs killing blacks is a lie"

Reuters report (via ST) 24 Feb 2007 - excerpt:

[Sudan's President] Bashir acknowledged Sudan was facing a "problem" in Darfur, but placed the blame squarely on rebel groups which did not sign on to a peace agreement concluded in Abuja, Nigeria in May 2006. "There is a problem, and the main cause of that problem is the rebellion ... we've done everything to possible to try to convince those who bore arms against the state and the people ... but all efforts and mediation failed," he said.

"There's a discourse in Western media about the number of people killed in these events, and a lot of organisations and the American media refer to imaginary numbers, up to 400,000 dead. All these are false."

He dismissed claims of ethnic cleansing in Darfur. "Talk of Arabs killing blacks is a lie. The government of Sudan is a government of blacks, with all different ethnic backgrounds ... We're all Africans, we're all black."

I agree with all of the above. Read through three years of this blog and you wil see why. Pity I can't find a transcript or video link of whole discussion instead of a short report by the BBC - excerpt:

Speaking via satellite to a conference in Detroit, he [Sudan's President Bashir] said that his government welcomed help on Darfur, but not at the expense of its sovereignty.

The Sudanese leader was addressing the national conference of the American Muslim organisation, Nation of Islam, at the invitation of controversial leader Louis Farrakhan.

He said he was speaking to a US audience because he wanted to correct the "campaign of distortion by the media" towards Sudan.

Mr Bashir also accused the international community of unfairly pressurising his government.

"We welcome the help of everyone to solve our problems, including the problem of Darfur, but not at the expense of our sovereignty and the unity of our homeland," he said.

"Those who want to topple the government in Khartoum, we will not allow them to do so," he warned.

Clearly, the aim of the Darfur rebel leaders is to topple the Sudanese government - they've admitted it themselves, noted here in the archives of Sudan Watch. JEM's even talked of making Darfur their own country. I wonder if the financing and brains behind the insurgents are that of black Africans.
- - -

See The Sudanese Thinker �on Sudan: Arab or African?

Racism in Our Subconsciousness?

See Ola's blog entry at Cinnamon Zone: Racist inner child

(via Global Voices Online - Palestine: Racism in Our Subconsciousness? 21 Feb 2007)

Languages of Sudan

See Ethnologue report for Sudan.

Chad prime minister flown to France after heart attack

Feb 21 2007 Reuters report excerpt:

Chad's Prime Minister Pascal Yoadimnadji was flown for urgent medical treatment in France after suffering a heart attack early on Wednesday, a source at his office said.

Infrastructure Minister Adoum Younousmi will take over as the interim head of the cabinet during Yoadimnadji's absence, another government source said.

UPDATE : Reuters Feb 23 2007 (via CNN) - Chad's Prime Minister Pascal Yoadimnadji died from a brain hemorrhage in Paris on Friday after he was flown there for urgent treatment following a heart attack. He was 56.

ICC to name Darfur suspects on Feb. 27

Feb 22 2007 Reuters report (via ST) says ongoing fighting in Darfur has hampered the work of ICC investigators, who have had to interview witnesses outside Sudan, and divisions among Darfur's rebel factions have contributed to delaying an effective peace deal with Khartoum. Excerpt:

"[ICC Prosecutor] Moreno-Ocampo will submit evidence, in connection with named individuals, of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur," his office said in a statement, adding that the prosecutor would hold a news conference at 1300 GMT on Feb. 27.

Once Moreno-Ocampo has filed the evidence, pre-trial judges will decide whether to issue summons or arrest warrants for the named individuals. Formal charges will only follow later.

For more details see ICC media advisory at http://www.icc-cpi.int/press/pressreleases/225.html

UNMIS says 300 Maaliya militiamen attacked S. Darfur village

UN News Centre report 21 Feb 07 - excerpt:

UNMIS reports that earlier this week about 300 Maaliya militiamen attacked a village in south Darfur, with unconfirmed reports stating that 7 people were killed and 4 injured. In west Darfur, the Mission said that eight more families of internally displaced people (IDPs) had recently arrived in El Geneina after fleeing militia attacks.

20 KILLED IN DARFUR MILITIA ATTACKS

AFP report 21 Feb 07 via ST - excerpt:

The Janjaweed militia backed by the Sudanese government killed at least 20 people in an attack in a southern region of strife-torn Darfur, a rebel official said on Wednesday.

"Hundreds of Janjaweed mounted on camels with four all-terrain vehicles attacked the area of Umm Dhai," said Kamal Eddin Haj Daoud, head of humanitarian affairs for the Sudanese Liberation Movement, the sole rebel signatory of a peace deal with the Khartoum government.

Daoud, whose statements appeared in the press, gave the names of seven dead, indicating that the others had not yet been identifed and their corpses had been burned.

He also said the pro-government militia also made off with 350 head of cattle.

Strange how the media savvy rebels have access to hi tech gadgets yet rarely, if ever, publicise photos or film footage of attacks.
- - -

See Feb 21 07 Reuters report - AU says Janjaweed massing north of el-Geneina, Darfur

Democrats disingenuous in their anti-war rhetoric

Notable quote from op-ed by Victor Davis Hanson at RealClearPolitics:

The next time a Democratic administration makes a case for using America's overwhelming military force to preempt a Milosevic or a mass murderer in Darfur - and history suggests that one will - the Democrats' own present disingenuous anti-war rhetoric may come back to haunt them, ensuring that such future humanitarian calls will probably fall on ears as deaf as they are partisan.

Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and author, most recently, of "A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War." You can reach him by e-mailing author@victorhanson.com.

AU says Janjaweed massing north of el-Geneina, Darfur

Feb 21 2007 Reuters report by Aziz el-Kaissouni (via Swissinfo - also at Aljazeera) - excerpt:

Janjaweed militias have been concentrating forces to the north of el-Geneina, the capital of Sudan's West Darfur state, an African Union military source said on Tuesday, corroborating a U.N. report.

The AU source, who asked not to be named, said: "They are massing (north of el-Geneina) ... They have vehicles with machineguns on top and they're Janjaweed. We can't say what their intentions are."

The source declined to give numbers, but described the forces gathered as a "huge amount of personnel", with pick-up trucks, camels and horses.

A U.N. mission spokeswoman said the militia numbered in the hundreds. The AU source said an African Union helicopter was keeping the force under surveillance.

A spokesman for the Sudanese military said the assembled tribesmen were preparing to migrate from the area, after having come under attack by non-Arab tribes.

"There was a clash between Arab and non-Arab tribes ... and because attacks by non-Arab tribes had increased ... they (the Arab tribe) gathered to leave the area, not to fight."

A former rebel movement said a separate Janjaweed force had been attacking villages far to the east of the Darfur region for the past two days, killing six civilians.

That Janjaweed activity was north of ed-Da'ein, a town about 450 km (300 miles) southeast of el-Geneina.

A spokesman for the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), the only rebel faction to sign a May peace accord with the government, said the militia had pillaged food and burnt houses in an attack which began on Monday and continued on Tuesday.

Six civilians were killed and two injured, he added.

The military spokesman blamed the violence on intertribal disputes between Zaghawa and Maalia ethnic groups, exacerbated by the involvement of militia from the SLM on the Zaghawa side.

On Monday, a report by the U.N. Mission in Sudan said "armed militia had been mobilising in large numbers over the past five days in the general area of Abou Souroug and Sliea (approximately 50 km north of el-Geneina). The reason behind the massive militia mobilisation is so far not known."

Tribal clashes in South Darfur killed up to 100 people last week, the United Nations said.

Darfur, an arid area the size of France, has been ravaged by violence since 2003, when rebels took up arms, accusing Khartoum of ignoring the region.

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir has resisted pressure to authorise a deployment of thousands of U.N. peacekeepers to support the 7,000-strong African Union mission, saying the AU force was strong enough and the United Nations could give money and logistical help to a hybrid force.

Bashir arrived in Libya on Tuesday for talks aimed at advance peace efforts in Darfur. The talks were due to begin late on Tuesday but were delayed until Wednesday morning because Chad's President Idriss Deby had not arrived, an official said.

The discussions will also be attended by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki and U.N. and African Union envoys.

Gaddafi is expected to try to persuade the National Redemption Front Darfur rebel group to join the peace deal.

Darfur rebels say not concerned by Tripoli tripartite meeting

Darfur rebels seem to be holding up peace for Darfur. See Feb 20 2007 (Tripoli) Sudan Tribune article : Darfur rebels say not concerned by Tripoli tripartite meeting:

Darfur rebel groups denied participation in a mini-summit held in Tripoli in a bid to find a common ground allowing them to join the Darfur Peace Agreement signed last May between Sudanese government and one rebel faction.

While Abdelwahid al-Nur, the leader of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) told Sudan Tribune that they were not contacted by the talk's sponsors, the spokesperson of the National Redemption Front (NRF), Ahmed Hussein Adam said they received an invitation from the Eritrean mediator but they declined it.

In Tripoli, the Libyan leader affirmed they expect the arrival of the rebel leaders to take part in the meeting.

Also, in spite of the absence of the Chadian president, the tripartite summit - with the participation of the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and the Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki - discussed Tuesday night ways to persuade Darfur holdout rebels to join the DPA.

The leader of the SLM said such meeting would not facilitate the resolution of the conflict, as the Sudanese president is not really serious to reach a peace accord. He considers that attention must be given first to the protection of the displaced by international peacekeepers and their resettlement in their villages.

The NRF spokesperson pointed out that Justice and Equality Movement had apologized for not participating because they had not been consulted beforehand over the time and place for talks. He further said that Sudanese president participates in this meeting for Public relations.

Eritrea, which had failed to convince Darfur rebels to negotiate with Khartoum in Asmara, seems attached to continue its efforts for peace in Darfur. The rebels declined the Eritrean invitation because Asmara had closed the door for the participation of the UN and the international facilitators.

Rebel groups of the NRF have good relations with the Libyan authorities but the SLM seems distancing its self from Tripoli.

It was agreed in a compromise reached in Addis Ababa on Nov. 16, 2006 between the UN, AU and the Sudanese government that "The various initiatives must be brought under one umbrella and the AU and UN are best-placed to lead a credible process." The UN and AU envoys for Darfur were absent from the summit.

Observers say it is clear that this tripartite meeting would not be followed by a decisive resolution on Darfur crisis and that it might mean to amend relations between the Libyan leader and the Sudanese president.

Last month, the Sudanese president Omar al Bashir unexpectedly skipped on a 5 way summit that was held in Sirte, Libya. Also, Libya had stopped the transfer of 50 million US dollar to the African peacekeeping force in Darfur and didn't support Sudanese candidacy for the African Union presidency.

Sudan's Bashir + Eritrean president + UN & AU envoys to meet Darfur rebels in Libya

Right on, Col Gaddafi! I hope this news report from Khartoum is true.

Copy of Kuna report Feb 19 2007:

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir will leave here for Libya on Tuesday morning to meet Darfur rebels, who failed to sign Abuja peace deal.

Negotiations between the Sudanese government and Darfur rebels are to be held under the sponsorship of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, and to be attended by Eritrean President Isaias Afworki and UN and African Union envoys for Sudan's Darfur, the Sudan News Agency reported.

The agency quoted the Sudanese president's advisor Ali Masar as saying that the meeting would be a springboard for a fresh stage of dialogue between the Sudanese government and rebel movements in the troubled region of Darfur, which would be held in the Eritrean capital of Asmara later.

In May 2006, a peace deal was signed between the Sudanese government and main rebel movements under the patronage of the African Union. Other smaller rebel movements joined the peace deal.

But, another two rebel factions declined to ink the agreement, which, they claimed, failed to meet their expectations and demands for which they took up arms in face of the Sudanese government.

The Sudanese president has recently voiced his government's total willingness to negotiate with Darfur rebel movements which were reluctant to sign the peace deal, in a bid to put an end to the four-year armed conflict between the government and rebels, which has now left over two million people dead or homeless.

UPDATE:

Feb 21 2007 Sudan Tribune report - Darfur rebels say not concerned by Tripoli tripartite meeting

Feb 21 2007 Reuters report - AU says Janjaweed massing north of el-Geneina, Darfur

UN, AU envoys meet with Sudan's Bashir

Feb 18 2007 UN press release - excerpt:

The AU's Salim Ahmed Salim and the UN's Jan Eliasson on Saturday briefed President Omar Hassan Al Bashir on the outcome of the discussions they held with senior government officials and both signatories and non-signatories to the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA).

President Al Bashir "stressed the commitment of the Government to support the dialogue with non-DPA signatories and expressed Sudan's keenness to improve relations with Chad," according to the UN Mission in the country (UNMIS), which said the Sudanese leader also pledged to boost humanitarian work and cooperate with UN agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Why still no news of Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) - who is now running Kalma camp housing 93,000 IDPs?

250,000 Sudanese and Somali refugees living in Kenyan refugee camps

Feb 18 2007 AusAID press release (via ReliefWeb) tells us there are 250,000 Sudanese and Somali refugees living in Kenyan refugee camps.

And an additional $5.8m support for WFP's operation in Darfur will bring Australia's assistance to Sudan since May 2004 $55.6m.

Darfur rebel talks delayed

Feb 17 2007 Reuters report via Alarab - excerpt:

A conference aimed at trying to unite the divided rebels of Sudan's western Darfur region has been postponed again, this time to enable a new breakaway rebel faction to join the talks, a rebel commander said on Sunday.

Commander Jar el-Neby said that a faction had broken away from the National Redemption Front (NRF) rebel group and asked to attend the talks, prompting a delay to await their arrival.

"We believe they'll be a valuable addition to us, and thus we've decided to postpone the conference temporarily," Neby said.

He gave no new date for the meeting, originally scheduled for Monday.

Divisions among Darfur's rebel factions have been a factor in delaying peace talks with Khartoum, and the conference to try to unite their positions has been delayed many times, twice because of government bombardment.

The NRF, a coalition of rebels who rejected a peace deal with the government in May, fragmented after disagreements about whether to accept a ceasefire negotiated last month by Bill Richardson, governor of the U.S. state of New Mexico.

One of the largest rebel factions said on Thursday it had agreed to the ceasefire with the government.

Photo: A child's hand grasps barbed wire at Abu Shouk camp, located 7km north-west of Al-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, in 2006. A planned UN human rights mission to the strife-torn region of Darfur said that it would carry on its work outside Sudan after being denied entry visas.(AFP/File/Ramzi Haidar)

Note, 17 Feb 2007 Sudan welcomes EU envoy for DDDC.