Darfur’s Minawi denies his group behind fighting
July 11, 2006 (CAIRO) — The most significant rebel leader to have signed a peace deal for Darfur reaffirmed his faith in the partially implemented agreement Tuesday and denied his forces were responsible for a surge in fighting and atrocity allegations in western Sudan.
Minni Minnawi of the Sudan Liberation Army also said he would accept the position of senior assistant to Sudan’s presidency – a post that would make him head of an autonomous authority for the Darfur region – if his group nominates him for the job in the near future.
“If I am nominated, I will accept it,” Minnawi told a press conference in Cairo.
Under the May 5 Darfur Peace Agreement, the authority is to run Darfur as an autonomous part of Sudan, but all militia must be disarmed in the war-torn region for the deal to come into effect.
The agreement sought to bring to an end three years of fighting between several rebel groups and pro-government forces that has killed 200,000 people and displaced another 2 million. Minnawi signed the accord, but a breakaway faction of the SLA and the Justice and Equality Movement rejected it.
The agreement isn’t popular in Darfur’s refugee camps, where many people have tribal links to the leader of the breakaway SLA faction and argue that the peace terms are inadequate. Violence has continued in some areas.
Last month Minnawi threatened to withdraw from the agreement unless more was done to enforce the cease-fire.
But Tuesday, he said: “We are fully committed to implement this DPA.”
He acknowledged the agreement had yet to transform the lives of Darfur’s people. Asked to name its benefits, he said “the only thing” he could point to was that the cease-fire was holding in some parts of Darfur.
“(In) some of the area now, there is a cease-fire 100%. The government respected the cease-fire and also our troops are respecting the cease-fire,” he said.
Sunday and Monday, situation reports issued by the U.N. mission to Sudan said people in the region said there were nine cases in the past week where Minnawi’s faction of the Sudan Liberation Army was accused of attacking North Darfur settlements under the control of the rival SLA faction led by Abdelwahid Elnur. The U.N. cited the claims but did not confirm them.
“This is not true,” Minnawi said Tuesday.
“Our faction is not going to attack any civilian,” he said, insisting his forces respond only when “bandits” attack civilians and NGOs in Darfur.
Minnawi also dismissed allegations quoted in the U.N. reports that members of his faction committed rapes and kidnappings.
Minnawi said his faction continued to have dealings with former colleagues and other rebels who had refused to sign the peace accord.
He said he could not give details to the media, “but we have relations, and they are our friends, our brothers, and also we have (the intention) to make our relations more close.”
(ST/AP)