Darfur rebel leader slams proposal to include Arabs in Darfur talks

November 26, 2007 (PARIS) — Darfur rebel leader slammed report issued by an international think-tank proposing to include Arab tribes in Darfur peace talks. He said such ethnic approach does harm the cause of Darfur people and ignore the nature of the rebellion.

In a report issued on Monday 26 November, the International Crisis Group urges to make Darfur political process more comprehensive by including women – victims of the conflict — and the Arab tribes.

Abdelwahid al-Nur, the influential leader of the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SLM) denounced ICG report saying it ignores Darfur realities. He further said that the SLM as national and secular movement encompasses all the ethnic groups in the region.

“I invite the writers of this report to visit our troops in Jabal Marra and elsewhere to see the important place of Darfur Arabs in the movement;” al-Nur said.

He further said that Arab militias, who are enrolled by Khartoum to commit crimes against humanity, are actually rejected by their own tribes, because they broke ancestral ties of good coexistence between Darfur components, adding these militias destabilised the traditional leadership within their own tribes.

However, al-Nur warned that no place for the alien tribes brought recently by the National Congress Party in the region to fight the rebellion. He added that these “mercenaries” may have a place in jail.

The rebel leader said they had proposed to include the Darfur-Darfur Dialogue in the peace process to ensure a post-peace forum for all the political, social and traditional forces in Darfur.

He reiterated his rejection of ICG perspective to divide Darfur people to different ethnic groups adding this will cause another Lebanon in Darfur.

With regard to the women, the rebel leader said 40% of SLM membership are women. He said they participated in Abuja Peace talks. He said “We had three women in Abuja talks, Neimat, Taybah and Um aljeech.”

Al-Nur said that his SLM, is the most structured movement in the camps and they are represented in the different level within the movement. He pointed out they requested the presence of the IDPs during Abuja talks but at that time the mediation indicated it had no sufficient funds to bring the IDPs representatives to the talks.

(ST)