Olny dialogue can solve Darfur problem – Forum
Oct 12, 2005 (LAGOS) — The Darfur National Peace and Development Forum, a non-governmental organization (NGO) in Sudan’s region of Darfur, has said the Darfur underdevelopment problem can only be solved through dialogue, local media reported on Wednesday.
Adam Musa, chairman of the forum, was quoted as saying on Tuesday in Nigeria’s capital Abuja that “there is a problem of underdevelopment in Darfur but it cannot be solved through arms.”
The rebel groups in Darfur — the Sudan Liberation Movement ( SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) — have said they took up arms against the government to press for development of the area.
However, Musa said this was not true, adding “since they took up arms against the people in March 2003, the rebels have been attacking and looting people’s property and spreading insecurity in the region and this has led to a flood of refugees and internally displaced persons.”
The rebels claim that Darfur was marginalized was also not true because out of the country’s 32 ministers, Darfur had six while one of President Hassan el-Bashir’s six advisers was from the Darfur region.
Musa, a former governor of South Darfur, said the one-year old forum, which was not invited to attend the ongoing sixth round of the Inter-Sudanese Peace Talks in Abuja, was here to persuade the rebel groups on the need for peace in Darfur.
“We decided to come to Abuja because we are afraid that the international community will believe that the rebel groups which represent only two percent of the seven million people from Darfur are expressing the views of the majority,” he said.
Musa appealed to members of the international community to put pressure on the rebel groups to stop their assault and destruction of lives and property in Darfur.
He said the forum was planning to meet Special Envoy of the African Union to the Inter-Sudanese Peace Talks and Chief Mediator, Salim Ahmed Salim on its mission to Abuja.
The forum had held useful discussions with the Arab League, Egyptian Mission and the UN representatives attending the peace talks, he said.
The sixth round of the Inter-Sudanese Peace Talks began in Abuja last month with a view to ending the Darfur crisis that has claimed hundred of thousands of lives and displaced some one million others.
(Xinhua/ST)