Darfur rebel SLM postpones reconciliation meeting

Oct 24, 2005 (CAIRO) — The main rebel group in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region said it was postponing until Friday a key conference aimed at reconciling its feuding factions ahead of a new round of peace talks with the government next month.

Sudan Liberation Army rebels from different bases come together for a meeting in Tarenjer village, west Darfur, October 11, 2004. (Reuters).

The congress of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) had been due to open Tuesday at an undisclosed location in rebel-held Darfur but organizers said logistical problems had delayed the arrival of foreign observers.

“Some of our guests coming from Europe and the United States could not make it on the 25th and we decided to reschedule the meeting to October 28,” meeting organizer Ibrahim Ahmed Ibrahim told AFP.

He said an estimated 800 delegates were expected to attend the key meeting aimed at healing the massive rift in the movement over the latest round of peace talks with the government.

One faction, led by chairman Abdul Wahid Mohammed Nur, took part in the talks in Abuja which adjourned last Thursday, while another led by secretary general Mani Arko Minawi boycotted the round and rejected its conclusions.

Each insists it controls the majority of SLM fighters.

A new round of talks is to due to open in the Nigerian capital on November 21 after the SLM has held its congress.

An influential think-tank warned earlier this month that divisions among the Darfur rebels threatened to derail efforts by the African Union to bring peace to the devastated western region after more than 30 months of conflict.

“Unless reversed, the slow implosion of the rebel movements threatens to extend the tragic situation in Darfur indefinitely,” the Brussels-based International Crisis Group warned.

Up to 300,000 people have died in Darfur since the ethnic minority rebels launched their uprising in early 2003, according to a British parliamentary report.

Two million more have been left homeless after the government unleashed Arab militias in a scorched earth campaign against minority villages.

(AFP/ST)