Darfur rebels ready to sign ceasefire with Sudan government: leader

CAIRO, Sept 2 (AFP) — Rebels in Sudan’s western Darfur region said Tuesday they are willing to sign a cease-fire that was agreed in principle at secret talks with the government in neighbouring Chad.

“Our leader, Abdullah al-Bakr, is now in Chad and ready to sign a ceasefire accord,” Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) Secretary General Mani Arkoi Minawi told AFP in Cairo by telephone.

He said the talks were held Saturday and Sunday in the town of Abeche, some 300 kilometers (186 miles) from the Sudanese border, after mediation from the Chad’s president, Idriss Deby.

The Sudanese government was represented the Presidential Affairs Minister Tayeb Ibrahim Mohamed Khair, who is also a former governor of the Darfur and North Darfur provinces, Minawi said.

The SLM was represented by Yahia Hasan Neel, a member of its top body, the Revolution Command Council, he added.

Minawi said the talks were not conducted face to face, but through Chadian mediators who shuttled between the two delegations, offering proposals for a ceasefire.

“On Monday, the Sudanese minister left Abeche and demanded that Abdullah al-Bakr comes in person to have face to face talks and sign a ceasefire proposed by Chad,” he added.

He said Al-Bakr has agreed upon the Chadian government request and he crossed from Darfur into Chad Tuesday.

“We want the international organisations to know that al-Bakr is in Chad. We do not want any harm done to him,” he said, fearing that the government’s request to negotiate with him in person could be trap.

Khartoum said on July 24 it had halted negotiations because the rebels they were using them to gain time and build strength. Press reports said these talks were held in the rebel stronghold of Kornoy.

The SLM began life as the Darfur Liberation Movement in August 2001 before re-emerging under its current name last February when it began claiming responsibility for a series of anti-government attacks.