UN-AU mediator to arrange meeting with JEM chief inside Darfur

September 5, 2010 (PARIS) — The United Nations-African Union Joint Chief Mediator Dijibril Bassole will hold a meeting soon with the chairman of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) in Darfur to discuss the resumption of the faltering peace talks in Doha.

Bassole told Sudan Tribune on Sunday that he will travel to Khartoum to secure the approval of Sudanese authorities for the return of the rebel leader to Darfur.

“I will also meet the concerned authorities in Ndjamena and Tripoli to facilitate his return to Darfur,” Bassole said.

The chief mediator further added that the joint peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) would be asked to provide the needed logistical support for the meeting.

Bassole however, did not provide a time frame for when that meeting might take place.

Ibrahim has been stuck in Libya ever since he was barred entry to Chad last May as part of a deal between Ndjamena and Khartoum to end hostilities and normalize ties after years of proxy war between the two neighbors. Sudan reciprocated the move by expelling Chadian opposition figures on its territory.

Sudan has been pressing Libya to expel the JEM leader or hand him over to face charges leveled against him over his role in the May 2008 attack on the twin capital city of Omdurman.

The Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir following a recent meeting with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said that Tripoli had agreed to eject Ibrahim. Sudan Tribune at the time had learnt that Burkina Faso agreed to receive him with the consent of the Sudanese authorities.

JEM rebels and Khartoum, in a ceremony attended by Bashir, signed a framework agreement in Doha last February consisting of a cessation of hostilities and engaging in direct talks for the purpose of reaching a final accord that ends the seven years conflict.

However two months later, JEM suspended its participation in the peace talks in May accusing the Sudanese army of breaching the temporary truce and blamed the host country for favoring Khartoum.

Libya recently started contacts with several rebel groups including JEM in a fresh bid to unite them and proposed changing the venue of peace talks to Tripoli.

Khartoum has repeatedly voiced its opposition to any attempt to move the talks from Doha stressing the venue is backed by regional and international actors and that such a change would delay the resolution of the conflict.

Furthermore, the Sudanese government put out a new strategy aiming to domesticate the resolution of the conflict through the involvement of elected regional governments, the return of displaced persons and development of the region. The U.S., UN and AU have reportedly approved this strategy during a recent meeting in Khartoum.

JEM leader said he would not return to Doha and resume peace process with the Sudanese government before meeting with his field commanders on the ground.

(ST)