Rebel JEM says ready for talks after failure of Sudan’s bid to chair AU

Jan 24, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — A main Darfur rebel group said on Tuesday it would continue peace talks with Sudan after Khartoum failed in its bid to become head of the African Union this year, but had reservations about its appointment for 2007.

“Of course we will continue on peace talks. We expect the problem of Darfur to be solved next year,” Khalil Ibrahim of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) told Reuters.

A Sudanese government official told Reuters that the Sudan Liberation Army, the other main Darfur rebel group, was continuing talks in Abuja. The group could not immediately be reached for comment.

African nations earlier picked Congo Republic to head the 53-member AU at a summit in Khartoum, to be followed a year later by Sudan, whose leadership bid for this year had caused deep divisions.

Critics said Sudan should not get the chair while it was under fire for rights abuses in its western region of Darfur, where 7,000 AU peacekeepers are trying to uphold a tentative ceasefire between the government and rebels.

Ibrahim said JEM would not accept Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir as AU chairman until a solution was found in Darfur.

“If the problem is still there we will not accept. We will never accept presidency of Sudan unless the problem is solved,” he said.

(Reuters)