Sacked rebel JEM commander kidnapped peacekeepers

Oct 9, 2005 (ABUJA) — A sacked rebel leader is behind the kidnapping of a group of African Union peacekeepers in Darfur, his former comrades said Sunday, vowing to help ensure the captives’ release.

AU officials said 18 personnel from their mission in the western Sudanese region of Darfur had been captured near the Chadian border and were being held hostage by a faction of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).

But the head of JEM’s negotiating team at peace talks in the Nigerian capital Abuja told reporters that the insurgent leader they believe to be behind the kidnapping had been drummed out of the movement.

“Mohammed Saleh is not a member of JEM. We kicked him out almost six months ago, and right now he’s across the border in a neighbouring country,” Mohammed Tugod said, apparently referring to Chad, but refusing to do so explicitly.

“I think this act has been done by Mohammed Saleh and now we are trying to investigate and find out where he has gone with these people,” he said.

Tugod said that JEM’s current field commanders had been contacted and had denied any involvement in the incident. He promised that his movement would continue to cooperate with the African Union peacekeeping mission.

The chairman of the AU commission, Alpha Oumar Konare, had earlier accused Saleh of being behind the abduction of the 18 AU personnel near Tine on Sudan’s western frontier with Chad.

“It’s an area that belongs to JEM, there’s no doubt about that,” Tugod said. “But all the commanders on the ground confirmed that they hadn’t been involved in any incident of this kind.

“The only explanation is that a group of bandits came across the border and did this,” he said.

AU leaders have condemned the abduction and demanded the peacekeepers’ immediate release.

They have also blamed a second rebel group, the Sudanese Liberation Army, of carrying out an attack on Saturday that left three Nigerian peacekeepers and two civilian AU drivers dead.

AU special envoy Salim Ahmed Salim warned that such violence could undermine the Abuja talks, at which he is trying to broker a deal between Khartoum and the two rebel groups and bring an end to Darfur’s 30-month-old civila war.

In Abuja, a spokesman for the SLA’s political wing did not rule out the involvement of the group’s fighters in the attack on the peacekeepers, but insisted that the movement was opposed to any violence in Darfur.

“We are trying to contact our commanders there in the field to see what exactly happened,” said Abdelatif Ismail of the Sudanese Liberation Movement. “We condemn any kind of attack.”

Progress at Abuja peace talks has been hampered by a split in the SLM. AU officials said that Saturday’s attack was thought to be the work of a faction led by the group’s secretary general, Mani Minawi.

Minawi’s group has said it does not recognise the current round of talks.

Ismail said that SLM negotiators had not confirmed that his faction was behind the attack, which came a time of mounting violence in Darfur.

(AFP/ST)