Sudan allocates eight seats in the federal parliament to SLM-Minawi
May 10, 2006 (NAIROBI) — Sudan has reserved eight parliamentary seats for Darfur rebel Sudan Liberation Movement faction of Minni Minawi that signed a peace accord with the Sudanese government on last Friday 5 May in Abuja.
The Speaker of Sudan’s National Assembly, Ahmed Ibrahim al-Taher, disclosed that eight parliamentary seats have been reserved for the main faction of the SLM that did sign the peace agreement last week and that the SLM may take the seats as soon as the implementation of the peace agreement starts.
According to the signed Darfur peace Agreement, twelve seats in the National Assembly in Khartoum are allocates to the rebel movements.
In an interview from Nairobi where he attended the Inter-parliamentary Union assembly, al-Taher told Sudan Radio Service (SRS) that the Government of National Unity is exerting efforts to convince the Darfur rebel movements that did not sign the Abuja peace agreement last Friday to rally behind the agreement.
On May 5th the Government of National Unity and the main faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement, or SLM, signed a peace agreement in Abuja, Nigeria. The parties that did not sign the peace agreement are the Justice and Equality Movement and Abdelwahed al-Nur faction of the SLM.
Sudan’s Speaker of the National Assembly, Ahmad Ibrahim Al-Tahir, said that the government’s chief negotiator, Majzoub Al-Khalifa, is still in Abuja talking to the other factions.
Speaker Ahmed Ibrahim said “I think this agreement is a conclusive agreement; dealing with the main faction is a success to the government. Perhaps some problems might be created but still we have to make some efforts to convince them to rally behind the agreement. Dr. Majzoub Al Khalifa is still urging them to come to negotiations to sign the agreement.”
On the issue of disarming the Janjaweed militia, Al-Tahir said there are “outlaws” in Darfur that will be disarmed by the government, but he did not want to refer to the Janjaweed as outlaws.
(ST/SRS)