20110406
reuters

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Darfur's most powerful rebel group has suspended meetings with Sudan's government at peace talks in Qatar in protest at Khartoum's plan to hold a referendum in the war-torn region, the group's chief negotiator said on Tuesday.

A brutal counter-insurgency campaign in Darfur in 2003 sparked one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, prompting more than two million people to flee.

Violence has since subsided but several rounds of peace talks have failed to secure a truce due to rebel divisions and continued military action.

Insecurity continues to plague the region. A U.N.-African Union (UNAMID) peacekeeper was killed on Tuesday when armed gunmen carjacked a mission vehicle during a patrol in North Darfur, the force said in a statement.

Two other peacekeepers were injured, one of them seriously. One of the attackers was killed in the firefight.

In Qatar's capital Doha, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) said it had stopped talks with Khartoum for several days in Qatar's capital Doha over the government's decision to hold a referendum on the administrative make-up of Darfur.

JEM chief negotiator Ahmed Tugod Lissan accused Khartoum of taking the decision without consultation.

"It is not acceptable that the government, instead of resolving this through negotiation, is taking a unilateral decision to carry out the referendum in the way they want," Lissan told Reuters.