Darfur rebels say Sudan breaches cease-fire
May 21, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Darfur rebels who signed a peace deal with Khartoum in early May said on Sunday the government has already breached the agreement by attacking their areas in North Darfur.
“In the evening yesterday Janjaweed began the attack with some of the government army with them,” said al-Tayyib Khamis, spokesman for the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA). “They went in and took the civilians’ money and possessions and then left again.”
He said as yet they did not have information about anyone killed or injured during the attack.
Under intense global pressure, Khartoum signed an agreement on May 5 with one faction of the SLA. But two other rebel factions refused to sign saying the agreement was not fair. Thousands of Darfuris have demonstrated against the deal and clashes continue on the ground.
In the latest accusation, the SLA faction that signed the deal, led by Minni Arcua Minnawi, said Arab militia and government forces had attacked Dar es-Salaam in North Darfur, more than 100 km north of the state capital el-Fasher.
A 7,000-strong African Union force in Darfur is monitoring the widely ignored peace deal there. One AU source said they had not heard about the attack but that Arab militias, known locally as Janjaweed, had been moving in the area in the past few days.
The Sudanese army was not immediately available to comment.
Khamis said the Janjaweed, which the international community says Khartoum armed to fight the rebels, are still under the command of the government.
Under the May 5 peace deal Khartoum has to produce a plan to disarm the Janjaweed by June 22.
“The government has signed a peace deal but in reality they are not respecting the cease-fire,” he said.
“That’s why we are calling for U.N. forces to come in,” Khamis added.
The international community and the AU have called for a transition for the cash-strapped, poorly equipped AU mission to a more robust U.N. force, but Sudan had prior to the peace deal rejected the idea.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan is sending top-level envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to Khartoum this week to try to negotiate a breakthrough.
Rebels took up arms against the government of Sudan in early 2003, accusing it of neglecting the arid region the size of France. Three years of fighting have left tens of thousands of people dead. More than 2 million people have fled their homes to refugee camps inside Sudan and across the border into Chad.
Annan called the situation the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. The United States calls the violence genocide.
(Reuters)