Negotiators working to end four years of violence in the western Sudanese region of Darfur ploughed on Sunday despite predictions of failure by host Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi.
Although the Sudanese government declared a unilateral ceasefire at the start of the meeting on Saturday, key rebel groups have boycotted the talks in the Mediterranean city of Sirte sponsored by the African Union and United Nations.
"We can't talk about success or failure at this stage. The most important thing is that the process has begun," said AU spokesman Noureddine Mezni. The process "will not take days or even weeks," he told AFP, adding that chief negotiators, the UN's Taye Zerihoun and the AU's Sam Ibok, still hope to bring the boycotting rebel factions to the table.
"We will now begin the process of planning the way forward," AU envoy to Darfur Salim Ahmed Salim told reporters. "The next step will be how to create the necessary conditions which will enable the process of negotiations to start. "We should not try to put fixed deadlines but at the same time we cannot afford an endless process," he said.
Only six minor rebel groups have turned up in Sirte and they have sent "second rank" representatives with little power, a UN diplomat acknowledged. In a joint statement, the six factions called on the mediators to set a timeframe for further negotiations with the rebel groups that are boycotting the peace talks to try to persuade them to take part.
"We need an additional period of time which will be set by the mediators to continue negotiations with those who are absent and prepare the appropriate conditions" for substantive talks, said the joint statement read by Tejeddine Niem of the breakaway Justice and Equality Movement faction of Abu Garda. "To reach a just and comprehensive peace... we want no significant armed group to be sidelined," the statement added.
"We are continuing our efforts and contacts with our absent brothers to convince them to join the peace talks so that we do not end up with an outcome like in Abuja" in 2006, where one rebel group inked a peace deal with the government and two other groups declined to sign. Niem said the rebel factions taking part in the talks would meet international representatives later Sunday to discuss a timeframe.
Addressing the opening of the conference, Kadhafi said the absent Sudan Liberation Movement/Army and the Justice and Equality Movement were "fundamental" to peace in Darfur. "I consider their leaders to be my sons, even if they are disobedient, but without them we cannot make peace.
"I see that this conference must stop here," he said, before launching a broadside against the talks' sponsors, saying the UN and AU were not competent bodies to resolve "a tribal conflict". The opening session also saw a warning from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that rebel leaders who stayed away from the talks had much to lose.