Rebel JEM commanders say they want peace – report

May 14, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — A group of commanders from a Darfur rebel group that has so far refused to sign a peace deal for the western Sudan region have urged their leaders to approve the agreement, the official SUNA reported.

A rebel of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) mans a post in the northern part of the western Sudan Darfur.

South Darfur province commanders from the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) called on the group’s leader Khalil Ibrahim to sign the African Union brokered peace deal that was agreed in Abuja on May 5.

“The agreement puts an end to the suffering of the people of Darfur, an objective we are striving to achieve,” SUNA quoted Abdelrahim Adam Abu Rishah, JEM Secretary for South Darfur, as saying.

A number of JEM field commanders in South Darfur issued a statement declaring their joining of “the peace parade” by approving the peace agreement, the state-run news agency said.

The South Darfur-based faction said their approval of the agreement “was a result of the tribal reconciliation that have created a desire for tribal coexistence in the state.”

So far only the biggest military faction of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement(SLM) has signed the agreement with Khartoum, aimed at ending three years of war in western Sudanese region.

The JEM and the smaller faction of the SLM’s Nur have refused to sign the document. It was not possible to confirm the SUNA report with JEM officials in Abuja.

The problem facing the Sudanese government and the African mediation that the The smaller rebel faction of al-Nur is representing the biggest tribe in Darfur province while the largest rebel group of SLM’s Minawi is representing a small ethnic group of Zaggawa. This situation also weakens the position of the rebel JEM of Khalil Ibrahim because it is also constituted from the Zaggawa.

(ST)