Kadhafi meets Darfurians, pledges to help Sudan resolve problem
KHARTOUM, Oct 20, 2004 (Al-Sahafah) — The Libyan leader, Muammar Kadhafi, met in Tripoli yesterday a large number of Darfurians including 120 personalities, living Europe, America and Libya, who came to join the delegations of the leaderships of the Darfur local authorities delegations to the meeting.
The delegation included Darfurians of all shades of political persuasion, including members of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement, JEM, Khalil Ibrahim, al-Tijani al-Saysi and retired Maj-Gen Ibrahim Suleiman. Only the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement, SLM, failed to take part.
Kadhafi urged Darfurians to find swift measures to uphold cease-fire agreement so that he can start broker a political solution to the problem. He pledged that all Libyan resources would be put in a good use to resolve the Darfur crisis. In this respect, he reaffirmed his role as the supporter of marginalized people and revolutionary movements everywhere in the world.
Khalil Ibrahim said the crisis in Darfur has to do with the marginalization of people, and that Darfur is not looking for secession or self-determination. He pointed out that he would support any initiative by Kadhafi to resolve the Darfur problem.
In a statement to Al-Sahafah, Al-Saysi described the meeting with Kadhafi as positive. He also said that Libya was making positive contribution.
He also said that an all-inclusive meeting of all the Darfurians would be the best venue for resolving the problem. He went on to say that the meeting of the Darfurians in Britain was the springboard for the call that a conference on Darfur should be held. In this respect, he said that Kadhafi had come up with a number of proposals that might resolve the problem.
Al-Saysi accused parties, whom he refused to name, of trying to divide Darfur along ethical lines. He went on to say that the government was also guilty by adopting wrong policies in the region, pointing out that the war is now imposed on Darfurians, and that once the situation has become catastrophically out of control foreign meddling began, he added.
Meanwhile, a leading member of opposition the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) Ahmad Saad Omar, made a contribution on how to resolve the Darfur crisis since the Darfurians have decided to talk to each other on how to unite their stances on how to resolve the problem.
It is expected that the conferees will come up with a new initiative or joint statement before a number of them will travel to Abuja to take part in the talks between the government and the rebels due to start tomorrow.
Material from the BBC Monitoring Service