Libya is Surprise Venue for Sudan Peace Talks

Libya emerged yesterday as the surprise choice for full-scale peace talks next month between Darfur's rebel leaders and the Sudanese government. The talks, due to start on October 27 and to be chaired jointly by the United Nations and the African Union, were announced at the end of a four-day visit to Sudan by the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon.

UN officials disclosed that Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, had unexpectedly proposed Tripoli as the best venue during a dinner on Monday night. Five other countries had offered to host the meeting. Mr Bashir had already cleared it with Libya's leader, Muammar Gadafy, and Alpha Oumar Konare, the chairman of the AU. Mr Ban and his advisers spent several hours on the telephone during the past few days securing the approval of the eight leading rebel movements for the venue.

A peace deal negotiated in Nigeria last year collapsed when key rebel leaders demanded more concessions. The UN security council recently authorised a 26,000-strong force for Darfur, which should start deploying next month, but Mr Ban has repeatedly emphasized that starting peace talks is the best way to reduce violence. "We're urging all sides to create conditions for peace, a cessation of hostilities or a reduction in violence", Jan Eliasson, the UN special envoy said.

UN officials had already included a stop in Tripoli as the final leg of the secretary general's visit to the region after he arrives in Chad from Sudan today. They picked it mainly because several of the rebel movements have offices in Libya and the hope was that Colonel Gadafy would use his influence to take the talks seriously and be ready for compromise.

In the past, Sudan and Libya have had a volatile relationship as neighbors. Khartoum has accused the Libyan authorities of conniving with, or not preventing, rebel activity across their border.

Elzubair Bashir Taha, Sudan's interior minister, told the Guardian yesterday that there was strong evidence that military lorries carrying fuel, arms and Darfurian rebels had crossed from Libya into Sudan last month in preparation for an attack on a Sudanese police post at Wad Banda in north Kordofan, not far from Darfur. The raid, on August 29, killed 46 policemen.

"I'm not saying they crossed on August 28. There's been a military build-up," he said. "If the Libyan authorities knew, it's a shame. If they didn't know, it's more of a shame."

Mr Ban told a press conference yesterday that "Libya has been playing a positive role on Darfur", including hosting two meetings this year which defined a road-map for peace talks. This put pressure on the rival rebel movements to coordinate their positions and come up with a common platform. The main issue which destroyed last year's deal was the complaint of too little compensation for the millions of internally displaced people.

A key element for the peace talks is whether the rebel leader Abdul Wahid attends. He boycotted a meeting of other rebel leaders last month. "I would strongly urge him to participate," Mr Ban said. The core principle of democracy was to discuss disagreements "rather than protesting and complaining outside the framework of negotiations", he added.