Glance at Darfur rebels

May 5, 2006 (ABUJA) — Splits within the Darfur rebel camp have frustrated negotiators throughout the two-year peace process in the Nigerian capital. Following is a look at the background of the main rebel groups.

SUDAN LIBERATION MOVEMENT/ARMY (SLM/A)

Rebels from the Sudan Liberation Movement wait in their bases in an undisclosed location in North Darfur, Sudan.

Also known as Sudan Liberation Army. Internal power struggle came out into open in November, when Minni Minnawi organized a congress at which he was elected president and movement founder Abdel Wahid Nur was removed as chairman. Both still claim leadership and both factions sent representatives to peace talks.

Took up arms in early 2003, accusing Arab-dominated central government of neglecting an impoverished region that had seen decades of low-level tribal clashes over land and water.

Emerged from self-defense groups that had been active in the restive region for years. Base among the Fur and Zaghawa, main ethnic African tribes in Darfur. Darfur is predominantly Muslim; SLM seen as more secular and more broad-based than second main rebel group, Justice and Equality Movement.

Darfur heated up just as unrelated southern war was ending after 21 years. Sudanese government resists attempts to portray the north-south peace agreement, which created an autonomous south and gives southerners a chance to vote on independence, as a model for resolving Darfur crisis. But the SLM, seen as close to former southern rebels, has pressed for similar autonomy, if not outright independence.

JUSTICE AND EQUALITY MOVEMENT (JEM)

Led by Khalil Ibrahim, a veteran politician close to Sudan’s leading fundamentalist Islamic ideologue Hassan Turabi. In 2000, Ibrahim published the “Black Book”, which caused a stir with its argument that power in Sudan had been monopolized by an Arabized elite in Khartoum that marginalized other regions and other ethnic groups.

Base among the Zaghawa. Like SLM, calls for more autonomy but not outright independence.

The JEM has clashed with SLM over territory in Darfur and bickered with it in Abuja. Its relationship with the government is further complicated by Ibrahim’s links to Turabi.

Turabi helped bring Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir to power in a 1989 coup and then worked to implement Islamic law, but fell out with al-Bashir in 1999. He has since spent most of his time in prison or under house arrest, but remains influential. The government last year accused Ibrahim of playing a central role, along with leaders of Turabi’s Popular Congress party, in an alleged plot to overthrow al-Bashir.

(ST/AP)