Sep 28, 2007, 12:00 GMT
Johannesburg - The big guns are being rolled out next week in the troubled Sudanese province of Darfur. Move over Angelina Jolie, George Clooney and Mia Farrow. Darfur diplomacy is about to get a Mandela makeover.
On Sunday members of a brains trust of influential former leaders and activists known as The Elders, set up by the former South African president in July to tackle some of the world's 'most intractable' issues, will set out on their maiden mission to Darfur.
The line-up includes South African archbishop Desmond Tutu, former US president Jimmy Carter, Mozambican social activist Graca Machel and former UN special envoy to Iraq Lakhdar Brahimi. Tutu and Carter are both Nobel Peace Prize laureates.
'This is not just a quick trip for The Elders. We want the suffering to end and we hope to contribute to that,' Tutu said in a statement.
The Elders will travel to Khartoum to meet with representatives from the government of President Omar al-Bashir and rebel groups before moving on to Darfur to meet with community leaders and people living in camps for the displaced.
The initiative comes ahead of fresh peace talks set to take place in Libya in October, which one influential rebel leader - Sudan Liberation Movement faction leader Abdel Wahid el-Nur - has already vowed not to attend.
It also also comes amid ongoing wrangling between the UN and Khartoum over the composition of a UN-African Union 26,000-strong peacekeeping force due for deployment early next year.
Over 200,000 people have been killed and over 2 million displaced in the Darfur conflict that began when the Sudanese government put down an uprising by Darfur rebels over access to resources.
Analysts are hopeful that the wizened Elders, who bring to the table experience in conflict resolution in South Africa, the Middle East and Iraq, may be able to unleash new momentum towards a lasting peace. But no-one is holding his breath.
'This is quite an extraordinary group of individuals but the situation in Darfur doesn't lend itself to any quick solutions as we know,' Sally Chin, Darfur analyst at the International Crisis Group in Nairobi, said.
'If it's an initiative that can get Darfuris and the government in Khartoum to renegotiate with each other it's good. Whether they can is debatable,' said Ayesha Kajee, Darfur expert and director of the human rights exchange programme at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
Crucial to the success of the mission, they say, is getting stakeholders in the Darfur conflict, who were either excluded from or refused to 2006 talks in Nigeria, to come to the table.
Not just al-Nur's SLM faction and rebel Justice and Equality Movement leader Khalil Ibrahim, but also representatives from civil society groups and traditional leaders.
The ICG also called on The Elders to refocus attention on the implementation of the 2005 Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended a 21-year civil war between the Muslim north and the Animist and Christian south.
The failure of the parties to the agreement to abide by its terms could spark fresh tensions in the oil-rich south, threatening any peace in the western Darfur region, the Brussels-based independent think-thank said.
One of The Elders trump cards in Darfur and elsewhere is the group's association with Mandela, whose reconciliation with his apartheid jailors of 27 years has made a symbol of forgiveness and forebearance.
Tutu and Machel also enjoy considerable moral clout in Africa, he for his outspokenness on human rights abuses everywhere, she for her work with refugee children in her native Mozambique.
This is the second trip to Sudan this year for ex-US president Carter. In February he already had audiences with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and southern Sudanese President Salva Kiir.
The Elders' renown was, however, lost on at least one rebel leader.
Days before they were were due in Darfur, Jar El Naby, Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) commander in North Darfur told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa Wednesday: 'No I don't know this man (Tutu). I don't know about this visit.'
But, he added: 'We are very happy if they visit to come see us. It is very good to come to Darfur. We welcome them.'
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