Eritrea rejects Sudanese accusations of support for Eastern Front

ASMARA, June 22 (AFP) — Eritrea on Wednesday rejected Sudanese accusations it is giving military support to eastern rebels now fighting Khartoum’s forces south of Port Sudan in Sudan’s Red Sea state.

Beja rebels strip their rifles on a rocky hill near the Eritrean border town of Rubda June 4, 2005. (Reuters).

“To say that we provide military support to East Sudan rebels is baseless, a total fabrication,” said Information Minister Ali Abdu. “We only provide moral and political support to them.”

“In Sudan, we support a peaceful solution, the logic of force is not the best alternative,” he told AFP.

His comments came in response to charges from Sudanese officials that the Eastern Front rebel group, which has offices in Asmara, received military assistance from Eritrea.

Meanwhile, a senior Eastern Front official in Asmara said fighting continued on Wednesday but could not provide any further information about the battlefield situation.

“All I can say is that there has been fighting today but I don’t have the details yet,” the official, Salah Barqueen, told AFP, repeating denials that the Eastern Front or its components received military aid from Asmara.

Ali Abdu allowed that the movement, as well as groups fighting Khartoum in the troubled western region of Darfur, had representatives in Eritrea but insisted this was not unusual.

“Rebels from the Eastern Front movement have offices in Asmara, as do the two main Darfur rebel groups,” he said, referring to the armed anti-Khartoum factions battling in the troubled western region of Sudan.

“But they also have offices in Egypt and in Europe,” he said.

One of the two Darfur groups, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), says it is fighting with the Eastern Front in Red Sea state where the rebels claim to have captured as many as 20 soldiers and military hardware.

On Monday, a day after the Eastern Front launched its first major offensive against government positions near the town of Tokar south of Port Sudan, the governor of Red Sea state accused Eritrea of backing the rebels.

Confirming that fighting was under way, the governor, Major General Hatim al-Wasilah al-Sammani, maintained that the rebels could only have reached Tokar with “logistical support that can be provided only by Eritrea.”

Ali Abdu maintained that Eritrea, which has a history of strained ties with Sudan, was only interested in peace in all regions of its vast northern neighbor and that President Isaias Afwerki had met with John Garang, the leader of an ex-southern rebel group, only on Tuesday to pursue that goal.

“Dr. Garang met (Isaias) who assured him Eritrea will constructively engage for a comprehensive peace agreement in all Sudan,” he said. “When there are new developments in Sudan, Garang always consults with Eritrean authorities.”

Earlier Wednesday, the state-run Eritrean news agency ERINA quoted Garang as saying during the meeting with Isaias that he had sympathy with rebels in east and western Sudan who have long complained of marginalization by the government in Khartoum.

Garang, the leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) which signed a peace deal with Khartoum in January, was quoted by ERINA as saying “we sympathize with the Darfur and eastern Sudan question.”

The new fighting has sparked fears that a new Darfur-type conflict will open up in Sudan amid peace talks in Nigeria involving the government and western rebels and the implementation of the Khartoum-SPLM/A agreement.