Darfur rebel SLM to meet, choose new leaders

Oct 23, 2005 (KHARTOUM) — Darfur’s main rebel group will choose a new leadership at a unity conference this week in the troubled region bordering Chad, commanders said on Sunday.

Sudan Liberation Army rebels from different bases come together for a meeting in Tarenjer village, west Darfur, October 11, 2004. (Reuters).

Talks to end the Darfur conflict, called a genocide by the United States, made little headway in a 6th round just ended in the Nigerian capital Abuja. Fighting and rebel splits have hampered progress.

Conference organiser Ibrahim Ahmed Ibrahim told Reuters from Darfur that all the Sudan Liberation Army leadership was urged to attend because this was a call “by the grass roots of the movement”.

He added: “There will be voting on the leadership of the movement.”

The conference will be held from October 25-28 in SLA areas.

The two SLA leaders, Secretary-General Minni Arcua Minnawi and President Abdel Wahed Mohamed el-Nur rarely present a united front and have publicly differed over issues such as mediation and control of troops on the ground.

Minnawi did not attend the last round of Abuja talks but he said in Darfur that he would attend the leadership conference and the next round of Abuja talks due to start at the end of November.

“After the conference who will be leader of the movement nobody knows,” he told Reuters by satellite telephone. “But if I become leader of the movement absolutely I will go (to Abuja).”

Nur has said he will not go because he was not involved in organising the conference. Both Minnawi and Ibrahim urged him to attend.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than 2 million forced from their homes in Darfur, where non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003, accusing the central government of monopolising power and wealth.

The United Nations says Khartoum then armed mostly Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, who stand accused of a widespread campaign of rape, killing and burning in non-Arab villages.

Khartoum denies genocide but the International Criminal Court is investigating alleged war crimes in the region.

U.S. and U.N. officials have urged the rebels to unite and rein in breakaway factions. Jendayi Frazer, the U.S. assistant secretary of State for African affairs, said during a visit to Sudan on Saturday that Nur and Minnawi should meet in Kenya in November to solve their differences.

(Reuters)