TRIPOLI, 12 May 2005 — Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi announced yesterday that Tripoli is to host an African minisummit on Sudan’s war-torn region of Darfur on May 16. “The meeting will take place in Tripoli at the request of many of you,” Qaddafi said in front of representatives of two Darfur rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement.
The summit, grouping Chad, Egypt, Libya, Nigeria and Sudan but not the rebels was initially due to be held in Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh next week. The rebels asked the Libyan leader for financial support of seven million dollars and funds to compensate their ethnic minority supporters for the ravages of the Sudanese security forces and their Arab militia allies.
They also agreed to resume peace talks with Khartoum, to respect an April 2004 cease-fire and asked Qaddafi to defend their interests at the summit. A similar five-way meeting over Darfur - also without the presence of the rebel movements - was held in Libya in October 2004 but failed to yield any significant results.
The rebels have accused the Sudanese regime of pursuing a “war of extermination” against Darfur’s minorities since they launched their uprising two years ago. As many as 300,000 people have died in the conflict and more than two million more fled their homes, according to a British parliamentary committee report.
“I announce that the mini African summit on Darfur will be convened in Tripoli next Monday,” Qaddafi said. In Cairo, an Egyptian official earlier said he believed it had been postponed again, without elaborating. The summit was due discuss the consequences of a UN Security Council resolution on bringing to justice people suspected of war crimes in Darfur, where conflict erupted in 2003. Khartoum has said any trials should take place in Sudan.
Meanwhile, an Arab tribal chief accused by the United States of leading a dreaded militia in Darfur said yesterday he would not go to a court outside Sudan but would accept a fair trial in the country.
But speaking at a military camp in his home area, Musa Hilal told Reuters that if national trials for war crimes in the western region were unjust or political, he would fight this with all the means at his disposal.
He denied any involvement in atrocities in Darfur and blamed the war on the mostly non-Arab rebels who launched an insurgency against the Arab-dominated government in early 2003.
“I respect my homeland and so I have to respect a national court,” he said in the camp in North Darfur. “As for a foreign court, this I do not agree with.” But if a domestic trial was not fair and he failed to defend himself by legal means, “then people have a right to defend themselves using all means at their disposal.” Hilal declined to elaborate, but family sources said they would take up arms if he was made a scapegoat.
UN sources have said Hilal, who heads Darfur’s largest Arab tribe, is likely to be on the list. The US State Department has accused him of being a leader of Arab militias known locally as Janjaweed. Hilal said his role in the conflict was one of coordination only.
