Darfur rebels say government ‘fooling’ Arab tribes

March 18, 2009 (PARIS) — A member of a rebel group in Darfur accused a presidential adviser of fooling Arab tribesmen in South Darfur into supporting President Omer Al-Bashir by promising to create a new state in their area.

During a visit to South Darfur, the Sudanese President rallied on Wednesday thousands of Arab tribesmen who pledged to support him against any external threat after the arrest warrant issued by the ICC judges on March 4.

Banani Ali Mohamed Tagadi, a spokesperson of the former Revolutionary Forces Front (RFF), an Arab rebel group who has now joined the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), accused Abdellah Massar, a presidential adviser from the region, of spending important amounts of money to mobilize the Darfur Arab tribes in the region to demonstrate in favor of President Bashir.

Tagadi told Sudan Tribune by satellite phone from Darfur that Masar promised the Arab tribes in South Darfur State to create a new state for them in Al-Dayain in order to give them more autonomy from the state authority based in Nyala.

Bashir during his virulent and long speech against the ICC and the West before thousands of Rizeigat tribesmen riding horses hinted at the possible establishment of a new state in southern Darfur with Al-Dayain its capital.

The Sudan People’s Forum, a government-convened initiative ostensibly for addressing some political issues underlying the Darfur conflict, had adopted a resolution on the need to review the administrative division of the Darfur region. And the President has formed a committee to study the issue and formulate proposals in this direction.

The RFF is one of the small Arab rebel groups from Bahr El-Arab region who are opposed to the repressive policy implemented by the Sudanese government since 2003 in Darfur. Many of them refused to take part in the campaigns of violence orchestrated by the government to quell the rebellion.

The military commander of the RFF rebels, Farah Al-Amir Rizq Allah called on Rizeigat to distance themselves from the government and not to be “a fuel” for any future wars in the region.

Rizq Allah said their organization has merged with JEM and they are now part and parcel of this movement.

(ST)