Dissidents from rebel JEM may sign Darfur peace deal
May 31, 2006 (ADDIS ABABA) – Dissidents from a holdout Darfur rebel group may sign a peace pact for the troubled Sudanese region, diplomats said Wednesday, as an African Union deadline loomed for the deal’s acceptance.
A group claiming to represent a splinter faction of Darfur’s Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) arrived at AU headquarters here seeking to meet officials just hours before the midnight expiration of the deadline, they said.
AU Peace and Security Council commissioner Said Djinnit confirmed that a number of Darfur minority groups, including members of the JEM, had contacted the pan-African body to say they wanted to sign the deal.
“We have been approached by a certain number of groups who are favorable to the DPA,” he told reporters, referring to the Darfur Peace Agreement.
“Until the expiration of the deadline, we are hopeful the leaders of the (holdout) rebel groups will sign the peace deal,” he said.
“After the deadline expires, the African Union will adopt a common position on the whole question, including how to deal with those who didn’t sign and options for factions who would like to join the agreement,” he said.
The leader of Darfur rebel JEM, Khalil Ibrahim, who rejected an African-drafted accord to resolve the crisis in western Sudan arrived Wednesday in Slovenia. But president Janez Drnovsek said he hopes to persuade him to sign Abuja accord.
The identities of the alleged JEM dissidents were not immediately clear but diplomats said they were ready to sign the May 5 peace agreement, which was already signed by a faction of Darfur’s Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM).
“The dissident faction members of the JEM came here to sign, but they cannot sign today unless their leaders come,” an African diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity.
“If their leaders don’t show up, they are hoping to sign tomorrow if the AU will accept their signature as a faction,” a second African diplomat said. “The AU is now looking at some mechanism to accept the signature of the faction.”
The diplomats said the leaders of the group — whose identities were also not immediately clear — were expected in Addis Ababa late Wednesday or Thursday.
Earlier, JEM representatives said that the group would not sign the deal unless significant changes were made.
The African Union has given the JEM and the SLM al-Nur group until May 31 to sign onto the deal or face sanctions it says it will impose and ask the UN Security Council to copy.
The groups have refused to sign the accord that aimed at ending three years of conflict in Darfur, which has left some 300,000 people dead and 2.4 million homeless. They say the deal fails to fully address their concerns.
(ST)