Sudan accuses Darfur rebels of sabotaging talks
Sept 21, 2005 (ABUJA) — Sudanese government accused Darfur rebel Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) of deliberately attempting to undermine peace talks Wednesday after the insurgents claimed responsibility for an attack on a government-held town.
Darfur’s main rebel group claimed in a statement to have killed 80 government soldiers in two days of fighting around the town of Sheiria and in the Khazzan Jedid region of southern Darfur.
“The SLM won control Monday of the town of Sheiria in southern Darfur, inflicting heavy losses to the enemy estimated at 80 killed in the ranks of the government forces,” said a statement.
The news undermined attempts by the African Union to coax the SLM and the Khartoum government into negotiating a political solution to the 30-month-old conflict at a peace conference in Abuja.
“It’s clear that there is an attempt to sabotage the talks by some elements of the SLM,” said Amin Omar, spokesman for the Sudanese government delegation at the talks.
He said that the government had complained to AU ceasefire monitors about the attacks, but promised that his side would not pull out of the talks. “We will not allow them to sabotage the talks, so as not to fulfil their intention,” he said.
The SLM and its military wing, the Sudanese Liberation Army, have split into two factions; one opposed to taking part in the Abuja conference, and the other represented there by a negotiating team, which some observers believe is seeking a way out of the dialogue.
News of the latest fighting was announced by the anti-talks faction, but rebel negotiators at the talks did not attempt to deny it.
“This attack took place in retaliation for provocative action by the Janjaweed and the SLM forces have withdrawn from the area,” said the head of the SLM delegation, Abdurahman Musa, repeating an allegation that a state-sponsored militia had started the incident.
AU mediator Sam Ibok promised that the fighting would be investigated by African peacekeepers on the ground in Darfur and called on all parties to the talks to show restraint and to remain committed to the peace process.
Up to 300,000 people have died in Darfur since the beginning of the rebellion in February 2003, while more than two million others have been displaced, sparking one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
The SLM and another rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement, launched their uprising to protest what they saw as the economic and political marginalisation of Darfur and its mainly black African population by the Arab-led government in Khartoum.
Government forces responded with a scorched earth campaign in which Arab militias such as the Janjaweed against minority villages suspected of supporting the rebels.
The outlines of a political deal to grant Darfur greater economy and redistribute more of Sudan’s oil wealth is already on the table in Abuja but after a year of on-again, off-again discussions, frustrated mediators have had trouble keeping both sides at the conference.
Full political negotiations are scheduled to begin at the weekend.
(AFP/ST)