In Sudan, Darfur rebels risk obstructing peace

For rebels in Sudan's troubled Darfur region, every day is a struggle. With the hopes of their beleaguered people on their shoulders, they roam some of the world's least hospitable terrain, avoiding attacks by Sudanese helicopters and protecting villagers from raids by the government-backed janjaweedmilitia.

But, increasingly, the rebels are at risk of becoming the key stumbling block to peace, say analysts. In recent months, the rebels have:

• Split into more than a dozen quarreling factions.

• Accused one another of seeking personal fame, being bought off by Sudan's government, and representing the interests of specific tribes instead of all of Darfur's people.

• Killed 10 African Union (AU) peacekeepers, according to AU commanders, in the worst attack since the troops were deployed in 2004.

Now, with the patience of the international community wearing thin, Darfur's disparate rebels are meeting in South Sudan in hopes of forming a common agenda for Oct. 27 peace talks in Tripoli, Libya. But even if they do come up with a unified position before heading into the UN-sponsored talks, observers say that getting rebel leaders to agree on who should represent them will be much more difficult.

"The rebels need to get their act together," says Alex de Waal, a Darfur expert at Harvard University, adding that the Sudanese government "is loving every minute of this."

With key rebel leaders set to boycott next Saturday's talks, top-level international officials are ratcheting up pressure to make them participate. Last week, Britain's Lord Malloch Brown, the minister for Africa, threatened to cut any groups that don't show up for the talks out of all future peace negotiations. Last month, US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte threatened to "sanction" rebel leaders who boycott the talks.

So far, these threats have failed to move Abdul Wahid Mohammed Nur, who leads a main faction of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) rebel group from his base in Paris and commands widespread support among many Darfur refugees. He says there is no point in talking until there is security on the ground. Many smaller factions agree.

But Ahmed Tugod Lissan, the spokesman for one of Darfur's largest and most cohesive rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), says a workable peace agreement that addresses the root cause of the Darfur conflict – namely the longstanding underdevelopment and neglect of the region – must be signed before sending in more troops.

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