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Sudan

Sudan: Leading Darfur rebel group JEM rejects talks

By Opheera McDoom

KHARTOUM, Jan 16 (Reuters) - U.N. and African Union envoys have persuaded one Darfur rebel group to attend preliminary unity talks but the main faction involved in the fighting has rejected the meeting, rebels said on Wednesday.

Envoys Jan Eliasson and Salim Ahmed Salim are on their first joint trip to Darfur in western Sudan since a botched opening of peace talks in Libya last October which the main guerrilla factions boycotted.

They met the Sudan Liberation Army Unity faction and secured their agreement to attend talks aimed at unifying the deeply divided insurgents ahead of renewed negotiations.

"We are ready for any meetings in Arusha," said SLA Unity official Suleiman Jamous, who said Unity Chariman Abdallah Yehia and foreign relations chief Sherif Harir were in the meeting.

Jamous said the mediation team spoke of a possible rebel unity meeting in Arusha, Tanzania "within 4-6 weeks" but added they did not specify a date. A spokesperson for the mediation team said nothing was confirmed.

But the larger JEM said they would not attend talks unless they included only the relevant factions. JEM boycotted the earlier talks because smaller factions were invited.

"This is a waste of time," said JEM commander Abdel Aziz el-Nur Ashr. "The mediation are repeating the same mistakes."

JEM is militarily the most capable fighting force in Darfur after rearming and attacking the government in West and South Darfur. The SLA Unity has popular support and many loyal commanders in the field.

Over five years of revolt, Darfur's conflict has created the world's worst humanitarian crisis claiming an estimated 200,000 lives and driving 2.5 million from their homes. Washington calls the violence genocide, a term which Khartoum rejects.

A joint AU/UN force has taken over peacekeeping duties in Darfur, but currently only has around a third of the planned 26,000 troops and police on the ground.

REBELS DIVIDED

Peace efforts have failed due largely to rebel infighting -- movements have split into around a dozen factions from an initial two -- and ongoing clashes on the ground.

On Wednesday Sudan's army accused JEM of attacking Sheria town in South Darfur. "They planned this and attacked the town with 18 vehicles and armed men," an army spokesman told Reuters.

"Because we defeated them JEM then fabricated the reports of government bombardment," the spokesman added.

JEM and another SLA faction loyal to founder Abdel Wahed Mohamed el-Nur said the government had again bombed in the Jabel Moun area of West Darfur on Tuesday morning.

"They destroyed the water source and killed cattle but there were no human losses," SLA commander Abbas Mohamed Asil told Reuters from the area on the border with Chad.

Reports of bombardment in the remote area are difficult to confirm as most aid groups do not work in Jabel Moun and African Union peacekeepers rarely patrol the volatile area.

Ashr said JEM was discussing meeting the envoys but said they had asked them first to secure the release of JEM ceasefire observers arrested more than two weeks ago from the African Union headquarters in el-Fasher.

"If they succeed to release these JEM members it can facilitate a meeting," he told Reuters.

The six members of JEM were part of a stalled ceasefire commission tasked with investigating violations of a shaky truce in Darfur and based in el-Fasher.

(Editing by Keith Weir)