Darfur rebels say not intimidated by threat of sanctions
September 22, 2007 (DOHA) — Spokesperson of the Sudan Liberation Movement has said they are not intimidated by the threat of sanctions announced by the high level meeting on Darfur yesterday if they boycott peace negotiations in Libya at the end of October.
Yahia Bolad, the spokesperson of the SLM told the Satellite TV al-Jazeera “We are not intimidated by threats of sanctions because our people have been subjected to sanctions for a long time. They are living in refugee camps; they are displaced and subjected to acts of killing and rape on a daily basis.”
Bolad said that international forces should be deployed in Darfur; violence against civilians should be stopped. He also reiterates the need to deploy international forces “because the African forces have been present for more than four years and achieved nothing. They did not achieve security or peace.”
Participants at the high-level meeting Friday urged all Darfur rebel groups to attend crucial peace talks with Khartoum scheduled in Libya next month or face sanctions.
“Participants confirmed their support for the talks and expressed strong expectations that the negotiations would be inclusive and decisive, stressing that the parties should seize this unique opportunity to resolve the conflict,” read a joint statement issued at the end of the one-day meeting.
US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte also said after the meeting that those rebel groups which would refuse to go to Tripoli for the talks scheduled for October 27 would face “sanctions.”
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner meanwhile deplored Darfur rebel chief Abdelwahid al-Nur’s refusal to take part in peace talks. However he said France could not expel him.
The Tripoli meeting aims to broaden the Darfur peace agreement (DPA) signed in May 2006 between Khartoum and the main Darfur rebel movement to include those groups which did not sign it.
(ST)