By Opheera McDoom
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (Reuters) - Sudanese rebels hope the new international mediator for Darfur has the power to wring concessions from the Khartoum government to kickstart a stalled peace process and help end suffering on the ground.
Speaking to Reuters at the weekend, officials from the main rebel factions in the five-year-old conflict bemoaned the lack of progress under previous mediators. They said they were crossing their fingers that Burkina Faso Foreign Minister Djibril Bassolet could make a difference.
"He has to be serious and have experience in political and military matters," said al-Sayyid Sherif, a member of the large SLA Unity faction's Revolutionary Council.
"He needs to be able to pressure the government side and be courageous," he told Reuters by telephone.
Sherif and other rebel leaders criticised previous United Nations and African Union mediators, saying they had rarely made contact with the rebel groups and had failed to push them and the government to the negotiating table to end the fighting which international experts say has claimed 200,000 lives.
Minni Arcua Minnawi, the only rebel leader to sign a peace deal with Khartoum, on Sunday urged African leaders meeting in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh to promote peace talks with the remaining factions and end the bloodshed.
Speaking by telephone from Darfur, he said previous United Nations and African Union (AU) mediators had completely failed. "I don't see any results on the ground," he said.
Diplomats at the U.N. said on Friday that Bassolet had been chosen as the new joint U.N.-AU mediator for Darfur, but his appointment must still be confirmed. They said Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir could still object to the decision.
INTERNATIONAL CLOUT
Some rebels voiced concern that Bassolet might not have enough international clout to succeed.
"We would have preferred a Western mediator," said Khalil Ibrahim, head of the most militarily powerful rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). JEM rebels attacked Khartoum last month, the first time rebels have brought their battle to the capital. They have since been repelled.
Suleiman Jamous, the Sudan Liberation Army's influential humanitarian coordinator, said Bassolet was not well known to Darfur's guerrillas, but the key issue was for the international community to play a decisive role.
"If he is active it's okay ... We don't care who is the mediator to pull us to the negotiating table. Our only condition is that the international community be present," he said.
If confirmed, Bassolet will replace the dual negotiating team of Salim Ahmed Salim from the AU and his U.N. counterpart Jan Eliasson.
The envoys have blamed stalled talks on continued fighting -- mostly between JEM and the government -- and rising tensions between Sudan and neighbouring Chad, who accuse each other of supporting rebels trying to overthrow their governments.
The conflict, which affects some 4 million Darfuris, has spawned the largest U.N. peacekeeping operation in the world.
Mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing central government of neglect. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for a Sudanese government minister and allied militia leader for war crimes but Khartoum refuses to hand them over.
