Darfur forum resolutions could lead to constitutional reform – official
October 18, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — A National Congress Party (NCP) official today expected that the resolutions of the ongoing national consultations forum on Darfur crisis could embark the country on a process of constitutional reform.
The three days consultations discuss the creation of one state in Darfur instead of the current three states, as it is requested by the rebels. However some NCP hardliners are reportedly opposed to the move and try to mobilise participants to reject this resolution.
The forum is held in the town of Kenana in White Nile state far from the capital Khartoum were held the opening session with foreign participation. However the African, Arab and Western ambassadors in Khartoum are invited to attend the meeting.
Today deliberations focused on ways to restore the authority of law, consolidation of peace process, ensure the return of IDPs and refugees and to avoid resort to military means to resolve divergences.
Before to begin the closed door meetings, the forum elected the chairpersons of different panels of the consultations. The Janjaweed leader turned special adviser for the ministry of federal government Musa Hilal, was chosen as co-chairperson of the Commission on reconciliation and social peace.
Darfur rebel movements and some opposition parties boycott the consolations. The rebels accuse Khartoum of trying to divert the international community and delay the resolution of the conflict. Others political parties speak about prefixed resolutions and blame government for ignoring them.
The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor requested an arrest warrant for President Bashir, on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. Sudan’s government is seeking international support for having the UN Security Council dismiss or delay the request.
Efforts by the African Union and UN to negotiate a settlement to the conflict, which has killed 300,000 people according to U.N. estimates, have so far had little success. Efforts are under way to organize a new round of peacetalks, set to be held in Qatar.
(ST)
Mr Point
Darfur forum resolutions could lead to constitutional reform – official
There are some things so strange in the peace conference with only one side.
“The Janjaweed leader turned special adviser for the ministry of federal government Musa Hilal, was chosen as co-chairperson of the Commission on reconciliation and social peace.”
Amazing.
If your village was burned by militia talk to this man.
On February 27, 2004, in the Tawilla area of North Darfur, 30 villages were burned to the ground, over 200 were people killed, over 200 girls and women raped (some by up to 14 assailants at a time, in front of their soon-to-be-murdered husbands and fathers), and 150 women and 200 children were abducted. The man who directed this atrocity–and many others of similar barbarity–was Musa Hilal, the most notorious of the Janjaweed militia leaders who have done the genocidal bidding of Khartoum’s National Islamic Front regime for the past five years. The U.S. State Department has publicly identified Hilal as one of six figures most responsible for the Darfur genocide; Human Rights Watch has labeled him the central Janjaweed leader in atrocity crimes. The brutal attack in Tawilla was part of a systematic campaign by the Janjaweed militias, including those led by Hilal, to “change the demography of Darfur and empty it of African tribes,” as Hilal explained in a memo sent to his commanders and to Khartoum’s intelligence services.