By Prensa Latina
United Nations : Special envoys from the United Nations and the African Union (AU) are meeting with representatives of the Sudanese government and Darfur rebels in a crucial effort to foster the peace process in that province.
UN officials in New York pointed out that the UN special envoy for Darfur, Jan Eliasson, and his AU counterpart, Salim Ahmed Salim, arrived in Khartoum on Sunday.
This week’s talks with the government and rebel groups from Darfur will allow the two parties to assess their will to seat at the negotiation table to reach a mutually-acceptable agreement to end nearly five years of armed conflicts that began when the rebels took the weapons against the government in February 2003 to demand political space and economic benefits.
Since then, the province of Darfur, on the border with Chad, has been trapped in a spiral of chaos and violence that have cost 200,000 lives and has displaced more than two million, according to the UN.
The efforts by Eliasson and Ahmed Salim are aimed at measuring to what extent the rebel movements in Darfur are ready to take part in direct negotiations with the Sudanese government.
The UN and the AU opened a round of talks in the Libyan port city of Sirte in October 2007, but no agreement was reached at the time, due to the absence of the main rebel groups.
Eliasson and Ahmed Salim will kick off the talks today amid serious warnings by the UN Security Council, which will take actions against any force trying to hinder the peace process in Darfur.