Chad detains leaders of Darfur rebel JEM

Aug 23, 2006 (N’DJAMENA) — Chad said on Wednesday it had detained and would expel seven leaders of a Darfur rebel group as part of its efforts to improve relations with neighbouring Sudan.

Bahar Idriss Abu Garda.

The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) which did not sign a peace deal for Darfur brokered by the African Union in May, formed the National Redemption Front with two other holdout rebel groups on 30 June.

According to Sudan Tribune sources, The JEM Secretary General Bahar Idriss Abu Garda, the chief JEM negotiator, Ahmed Tugod Lissan, and the leading member Omar Bakheit are among the arrested leaders of the rebel movement.

Chad’s Foreign Minister Ahmat Allam-mi told Reuters the leaders of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) would be handed to the African Union. JEM did not sign a peace deal for Darfur brokered by the AU and signed in Abuja, Nigeria in May.

“We have normalised our relations with Sudan and each party has to live up to its commitments,” Allam-mi said.

Chad and Sudan agreed two weeks ago to restore diplomatic relations and reopen their border region, which has been plagued by violence linked to the conflict in Darfur.

The two governments had long accused each other of backing rebel groups operating on either side of the border but agreed at a summit in Tripoli in February to stop insurgents setting up bases on their territories.

“These detentions come in the light of the Abuja peace deal and in the light of our obligations from the Tripoli accord,” Allam-mi said.

JEM leader Khalil Ibrahim said the detained leaders had done nothing wrong and called on Chad’s President Idriss Deby to order their release.

“I appeal to the president to release them. … Everyone knows we do not have a single soldier in Chad,” Ibrahim told Reuters by telephone from Paris.

Only one of three Darfur rebel groups and Sudan’s Khartoum-based central government signed the Darfur peace deal in Abuja on May 5. The African Union has around 7,000 peacekeepers in Darfur to help promote peace.

Since the deal, the AU has come under attack in the camps which house 2.5 million displaced Darfuris and their patrols have been obstructed by hostile armed factions who did not sign the accord or were not present at the negotiations.

The pan-African body had employed representatives of all three rebel groups to help investigate violations of a shaky truce agreed in 2004 but last week threw out officials from the factions which did not join up in May.

The AU said it took the decision after the government of Sudan declared the non-signing groups “terrorists” and told the AU it could not guarantee the safety of their representatives.

(ST/Reuters)