Darfur rebels plan to withdraw commanders from peace talks

ABUJA, Nigeria, Nov 1, 2004 (AP) — Darfur’s largest rebel group said Monday that it would send its military officials home from peace talks within the week to deal with what it claimed were fresh attacks by Sudan’s government in the western province.

Members of Sudan Liberation Army rebels stand attention in Tarenjer village west Darfur, October 11, 2004.

“The government – all they do is kill people,” Sudan Liberation Army spokesman Mahgboub Hussain said at the African Union-brokered Darfur peace talks in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.

“It is better that we send our military leaders back to work out a new strategy,” Hussain added.

He said the return of his military leaders was meant as “a serious reminder to Khartoum”, but didn’t elaborate.

The rebel group, the largest of two key insurgent factions in Darfur, said it would keep civilian representatives at the talks.

The discussions are the third round of efforts to end bloodshed in Darfur, where Sudan’s government and pro-government Arab Janjaweed militia are accused of orchestrated violence against the region’s non-Arab farmers. Violence started after the two non-Arab rebel groups launched attacks in March 2003.

Attacks have uprooted 1.5 million of Darfur’s people, and at least 70,000 of them have died, mostly through disease and hunger. Both sides are accused of routine violations of an April cease-fire.

On Monday, rebels and the government traded accusations of attacks in the town of Zaleinge, in West Darfur state.

The Sudanese government accused the Sudan Liberation Army of kidnapping around a dozen people from ethnic Arab tribes last week, while rebels said Arab militia known as Janjaweed ordered 30 ethnic Africans from a bus on Sunday, and shot them dead.

Aid workers and U.N. officials in Sudan confirmed there had been violence in Zaleinge, but there were conflicting reports on what was happening there.

One international official said tension was rising in the area, after Arab tribesmen accused the Sudan Liberation Army of kidnapping at least 15 of their people Thursday.

“Aid agencies have scaled down their operations and some have relocated staff” because of the unrest, he said, adding that ethnic Arabs and Janjaweed militias were gathering in the streets there, in a feared buildup to fresh violence.

An official with the African Union in Darfur said the Sudan Liberation Army had fought “possibly with Arab tribesmen” in Zaleinge on Sunday, and that A.U. cease-fire monitors had gone there to investigate.