Darfur rebel NMDR demands participation in peace talks

Sept 16, 2005 (N’DJAMENA) — The National Movement for Recovery and
Development (NMRD), a splinter rebel group in Sudan’s western
region of Darfur has called for the involvement of all warring
groups in the African Union-mediated peace talks which resumed
Thursday in Abuja, Nigeria.

MNRD is a splinter group from the Justice and Equality Movement
(JEM), which is taking part in the Abuja peace talks along with
the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Khartoum government.

“All the armed parties on the ground must be represented in
Abuja and any exclusion is likely to call the negotiations
into question,” declared Hassan Khamis Djorou, MNRD
co-ordinator.

“The Abuja talks are an ideal framework for the resolution of
the conflict in Darfur but excluding us is an error that will
heavily impact on the results,” Djorou told a news conference
in N’djamena, Chad.

The MNRD claims it has “big forces on the ground” in Darfur.

“The AU visited the zones held by our forces and knows what we
represent,” said Djorou, who also appealed to the international
community to support the involvement of all the parties in
conflict in the Abuja negotiations.

He said his movement had sent letters to the AU Chairman,
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and other mediators –
Chad, Libya, Eritrea, Gabon, US and donors – requesting that
MNRD be involved in the Darfur peace process.

Djorou said the movement had not received any reply to its letters
and threatened that the group would reject any agreement signed
in Abuja without its participation.

The Darfur conflict ignited by JEM and SLM in February 2003 has
killed some 180,000 people and displaced two million others.

(PANA/ST)