US urges Darfur rebel SLM to settle quarrel
Nov 1, 2005 (KHARTOUM) — Darfur’s main rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) said it had received a clear message from the US government forcing the two SLM factions, led by Minni Arko Minnawi and Abdelwahed Mohamed al-Nur, to settle their disagreements.
US administration demanded the SLM to prepare to leave for Nairobi on the 8 November to finalize reconciliation arranged under American and Chadian auspices.
Speaking to the Khartoum based al-Ayam newspaper, SLM deputy leader Khamis Abdallah Abkar said he had met US Ambassador to Chad Mark Wall yesterday to discuss the arrangements made with the Chadian government to reconcile Minnawi and al-Nur on 8 November in Nairobi.
Khamis pointed out that, in the presence of Chad’s Foreign Minister Ahmad Alami, the US ambassador had said his country was able to force both factions to attend the reconciliation in Nairobi at the given time.
Khamis further said the envoy had conveyed Washington’s intention to unify the SLM before the seventh round of the Abuja negotiations in order to form an SLM delegation capable of achieving peace.
Ambassador Wall pointed out that immediately after the reconciliation between Minnawi and al-Nur, all arrangements would be transferred to N’djamena to complete the reorganization of the SLM and solve all pending disagreements within the SLM body.
In this regard, Khamis said the delegation of Abdelwahed al-Nur, which was sent to the conferees in Haskanitah in western Sudan, had conveyed a clear message asking for the congress intended to reorganize the movement to be postponed, if the other party was willing to reunify the movement, since the current conference was not reconciliatory.
He said he expected the delegation to have conveyed Minnawi this message last night in a meeting between the two sides.
(ST)