Darfur rebel JEM refuses to return to talks
By Opheera McDoom
LONDON, Dec 23 (Reuters) – A Darfur rebel group said on Thursday it refused to return to African Union-sponsored peace talks and rejected the pan-African body as lead mediator to end the 22-month-old conflict.
The leader of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), Khalil Ibrahim, told Reuters it would only accept the United Nations as principal mediator in any peace talks and wanted U.N. troops stationed in Darfur.
The other main rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), said it was also very unhappy with the African Union (AU) but had not yet decided whether to attend a new round of talks in the Nigerian capital Abuja.
Ibrahim, speaking by telephone, said the AU had failed to hold the Sudanese government to account.
“JEM is rejecting the African Union. We are not going to Abuja again under the auspices of the African Union,” he said.
JEM and the SLA have been involved in faltering talks in Abuja to find a political solution to 22 months of conflict in the vast western region.
Tens of thousands have died in the fighting in Darfur and the United Nations says it has caused one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with more than 1.6 million forced to flee their homes. The United States says genocide has been committed.
Ibrahim said the AU, which is monitoring a much-violated April cease-fire in Darfur, had failed to protect civilians, disarm Arab militias known as Janjaweed or stop a military offensive by the government.
SLA chairman Abdel Wahed Muhamed al-Nur, told Reuters: “We think that until now the AU has completely failed to monitor the cease-fire and also to force the Khartoum government to stop violations.
“But we are discussing this and will likely make a decision this week.”
NEW VIOLENCE
Intense fighting in South Darfur state over the past two weeks halted the Abuja talks, as each side blamed the other for starting the clashes. Thousands have fled the renewed violence.
“The government has defeated the AU and the AU don’t have any guarantees for any future agreement or political solution,” Ibrahim said. “The talks must be headed by the United Nations.”
He said the AU could participate as observers in talks, and in a peacekeeping mission on the ground. But he said JEM would not accept anything less than U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur.
“We are asking to replace the AU with international troops — U.N. peacekeepers,” he added.
After years of tribal clashes over scarce resources in arid Darfur, rebels took up arms early last year accusing the Khartoum government of neglect and of mobilizing the Janjaweed to loot and burn non-Arab villages.
Khartoum admits using some militias to fight the rebels but denies any links to the Janjaweed, whom it calls outlaws.