Mood mixed among Darfur rebels ahead of talks
By Emmanuel Braun
CORCHA CAMP, Sudan, Aug 20 (Reuters) – A Sudanese rebel commander in a camp in Darfur tells his troops he is hoping for peace. But just a few hours march away, young men say they are convinced Sudan wants to drive them off the land.
Such is the mood in Darfur ahead of peace talks in Nigeria starting on Monday, that the rebels here are expressing a mix of optimism and deep scepticism.
Rebel commander Khamis Abdalla, in charge of 350 Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) fighters near Sudan’s border with Chad, said on Friday after addressing his troops that he hoped the conference in Abuja would be good.
“I told my soldiers, ‘I am going to talk for peace’. I told them: ‘You will keep your ceasefire agreement’,” he said while awaiting an African Union helicopter to take him to join an SLA delegation heading to Abuja.
But a few hours’ march from Abdalla’s camp, through tall grass and across dried-up river beds, young men from an allied rebel group said they believed Sudan wanted to hound them off the land to exploit riches below the surface.
“The government wants those tribes to leave Darfur and wants to give Darfur to the Arab militia for them to live in,” said Moussa Dag Ahmed, 23, who is in charge of a small group of seven fighters from the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).
“Darfur not only has petrol. Darfur has aluminium, gold, uranium, cement stones, the land is good for farming and the landscape is beautiful to visit,” he said. “The government wants to take all that from us and give it to them.”
ACCUSATIONS
The two rebel groups in Darfur took up arms at the start of 2003 in the region, the size of France, where African villagers vie with nomadic Arab horsemen for meagre resources.
Since the fighting started, up to 50,000 people have died and more than a million driven from their homes, mostly into camps dotted across Darfur and neighbouring Chad.
Chad mediated a truce between the government and the rebels in April. Sudan then pledged in July to disarm Arab militias, known as the Janjaweed, who have been attacking villagers but both sides have since accused each other of violence.
Refugees from Darfur are trickling into Chad complaining of more attacks by the Janjaweed. Under intense international pressure, all sides agreed this month to hold another round of peace talks in Nigeria’s capital Abuja.
“We need to see in Abuja if the government is ready to talk with us. That means if the government is ready to collect the weapons from the Janjaweed,” said Abdalla.
Near Abdalla’s camp, a shower transformed a dried-up river bed into a raging torrent, highlighting the difficulties rebels, government troops and aid workers face moving around Darfur in the rainy season.
Sitting on a branch back in the camp, a young boy, Khamis Idriss Abacar, clutched an assault rifle as he talked. He said he was 16, but looked far younger.
“The Janjaweed and the government attacked our villages and our families. I’ve had 6 months training — and now I’ve mastered the Kalashnikov.”