There was always a hanging suspicion that the Libya peace talks on the Darfur conflict would yield few results. Even before the peace conference has begun in Sirte, the absence of representatives of various rebel fractions has confirmed that the controversy over the Sudanese region is not going to terminate soon.
Eight factions from the disparate Sudan Liberation Movement/Army and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) have refrained to send any delegation to the peace conference. Such abstinence has flared up pessimism. Although the United Nations special envoy for Darfur, Jan Eliasson, is confident that the peace talks would certainly help unearth a solution to the four-year old problem, the prospects are looking bleak indeed.
The Sudanese government and the Janjaweed militia allies have sent a strong delegation to attend the peace talks in Libya but the absence of top ranked opposition delegation is strikingly stark. The fact that rebel groups have decided to shun the conference attests the intricacy in solving the Darfur crisis and also portrays how weak the United Nations propaganda of the significance of this peace effort was.
Darfur has been in a mess since 2003 and the Sudanese government has contributed negatively to the controversy. It has actually been reported to side with the JEM militia against the opposing rebel groups and has even declined to embrace a UN approval of 26,000 strong peacekeeping forces in Darfur.
The diplomatic and logistical agreements have been hard to come by and at the heart of the lingering Darfur conflict is the reluctance of either party to concede and compromise. The African Union has been rendered incapable in the face of mounting crisis and the United Nations too appears to be failing.
Image Source: Darfur Centre
Source: Yahoo News
