JEM-Bashar leadership arrives to Khartoum within three weeks
August 27, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – The leadership of the former rebel Justice and Equality Movement- Bashar (JEM-Bashar) will arrive to Khartoum within three weeks to inaugurate the implementation of a peace agreement signed with the government last April.
However, the killing of its leader Mohamed Bashar on 12 May near the Chadian border delayed the implementation of the agreement as the group had to reorganise itself and elected its general commander Bakheit Abdallah Abdel-Karim (Dabajo) as a new leader.
The advance delegation of the former rebels led by the deputy chairman El-Tom Suleiman Mohamed arrived in Khartoum on Sunday evening from a remote area in North Darfur where the former rebels are based.
In a press conference held in Khartoum on Tuesday, Mohamed reiterated the commitment of his group to fully implement the signed agreements. He further thanked the Chadian government and Qatar for facilitating the negotiations.
JEM-Bashar’s secretary of presidential affairs and deputy head of the advance delegation Nahar Osman Nahar told Sudan Tribune that Dabajo will arrive to Khartoum from the Chadian capital Ndjamena where he will meet with president Idris Deby.
“Dabajo will thank president Deby for all the support we received from him personally to achieve a peace agreement with the Sudanese government”, Nahar said, adding “Also, a high ranking Chadian official will accompany him to Khartoum within three weeks”.
Mohamed told reporters that his delegation will prepare with the Sudanese officials the arrival of their leader and renegotiate the implementation matrix agreed last April, stressing that the security arrangements and the integration of their combatants will top the discussions.
Nahar from his side pointed out that they will also meet with the Sudanese government officials, political forces, and foreign diplomats in Khartoum. The delegation will also tour Darfur region to explain the signed agreements and attract more support to the DDPD.
He further stressed they will exhort the international community to put pressures on JEM to release some twenty leading members captured following the killing of Mohamed Bashar and his deputy Suleiman Arko Dahiya.
The delegation met on Monday with Amin Hassan Omer, the head of DDPD implementation follow-up office, and held two meeting on Tuesday with the head of Darfur Regional Authority (DRA), Tijani El-Sissi and the Qatari ambassador in Khartoum.
El-Sissi, in statements after his meeting with Mohamed and Nahar, welcomed the arrival of the advance delegation, adding they will strengthen political partnership at the national and regional levels and boost the implementation of the Doha document.
In line with the power-sharing agreement signed between the Sudanese government and JEM Bashar, the former rebels will get two national ministerial portfolios, 5 RDA ministries and commissions, a deputy speaker of the RDA legislative council, 5 state ministers and 5 commissioners, besides some seats at the DRA legislative body.
(ST)