Darfur peace talks disrupted by further splits in rebel ranks

ABUJA, June 27 (AFP) — Peace talks on the crisis in the western Sudanese region of Darfur hit the latest in a long series of obstacles on Monday when the two rebel negotiating delegations fell out bitterly among themselves.

Peace-broker St. Egidio community spokesman Mario Marazziti, right, shakes hands with Ismael Omer a representative of the Darfur rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) at a joint press conference with the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), at the community headquarters in Rome, Friday May 13, 2005. Seated at the table are from left are the SLM/A’s Ismael Omer, Abdolgabar Dosa, and chairman Abdolwahid Mohamed Ahmed.(AP). .

A spokesman for the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), Mahgoub Hussein, said that his group had sacked the head of its negotiating team and would boycott further African Union-sponsored talks until its new leader is recognised.

Meanwhile, a group claiming to represent the field commanders of the second rebel faction present at the Abuja talks threatened to quit the Nigerian capital and return to Darfur in order to step up their armed struggle.

The AU dialogue has been endorsed by African leaders as a mechanism to bring the Arab-led Sudanese government to the negotiating table with Darfur’s black African rebels and bring an end to a 28-month-old civil war.

But talks have made little progress and casualties have continued to mount in a conflict which has seen between 180,000 and 300,000 civilians killed and 2.4 million driven from their home.

“Abdel Wahid Mohammed Nur is not our leader. We have written to the African Union about our position,” Hussein, who has thus far been the SLM’s spokesman in Abuja said. “Our official leader and representative is Abdel Jaffar Tosa.”

But a spokesman for the African Union, which is hosting the Abuja talks, said mediators could not change the status of delegates at the talks and would continue to recognise Nur as the top SLM negotiator.

“We don’t recognise factions. We will continue to negotiate on the way forward with the accredited representatives of the parties,” Nourredine Mezni said.

Mezni said Nur had written to AU special envoy Salim Ahmed Salim on Sunday and urged him to ignore correspondence from any other SLM factions.

“He said any other views are not of the SLM and should be ignored,” he added.

The talks between the government in Khartoum and two rebel groups resumed in Abuja on June 10 after a long furlough but have made little progress.

A second rebel party, the Justice and Equality Movement, is locked in a leadership dispute with the self-styled Field Revolutionary Command (FRC), a splinter group which claims to represent the Islamist group’s military wing.

FRC spokesman Ibrahim Sidiq Abdeldaim said his group was frustrated at being excluded from the talks — the AU has refused to recognise it — and was planning to return to its armed struggled against the Khartoum government.

“The (FRC) delegation will soon depart Nigeria and go back to the field in Darfur,” Abdeldaim said in a statement.

“The AU should be held entirely responsible if the peace process collapses as a result of not recognising and considering the legimate amd authorised leadership of the movement as an important partner in Abuja,” he said.

The group arrived in Abuja 10 days ago and claimed that the leadership of group presently representing JEM at the Darfur peace talks in Abuja had been sacked two months ago and a new one constituted.

Meanwhile, Nigeria has expressed frustration at the slow pace of the talks and delegates seem unable to agree on even a basic declaration of principles which would underlie future substantive political negotiations.

AU mediators abandoned an attempt to hold a plenary session of the talks with all parties present at the weekend, and there was no word on Monday of when such a meeting might go ahead.