Darfur local leaders demand peace talks moved to Libya

TRIPOLI, May 10, 2005 (Sudan Tribune) — Leaders of the local administration in Darfur have called for a change in the venue of the upcoming talks between the government and the Darfur rebels from Abuja to Tripoli under the direct supervision of the Libyan leader.

According to Al-Ray al-Amm newspaper, they also demanded a major role for the local administration in resolving the Darfur issue.

Lashing out at the Darfur rebels, the Libyan leader, Muammar al-Qadhafi, described the rebels’ motives for taking up arms as “non-objective and dishonourable”.

At a meeting with the local administration leaders and delegations of the two rebel movements, headed by the leader of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), Khalil Ibrahim, and a member of the political office of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), Osman Bashri, Al-Qadhafi said the war was not justifiable and the conflict in Darfur was “primitive and senseless “, and could lead Sudan into an international trusteeship.

He further said such problems could be resolved through negotiations and dialogue and not through rebellion.

“Those who started the war in Darfur have no respect for rights and are irrational. If their target was the Sudanese government, they should have gone to Khartoum,” he added.

He however noted that the rebel demands were objective and acceptable but this did not call for an armed rebellion. He said there were some quarters who had exploited the conflict in Darfur and strengthened it further.

Al-Qadhafi said Sudan People’s Liberation Movement leader John Garang himself sought to exploit the Darfur conflict to weaken the position of the government at the Naivasha peace talks.

He stated that without the disarming of the pro-government Janjawid militias and the rebels, we could not be able to restore peace.