SLM’s Minawi nominated for Senior Assistant to the President post
July 12, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan has taken the first toward appointing a Darfur rebel leader as head of the administration that will run the western region once peace has been restored.
The Sudan Liberation Army, the only rebel group that signed the Darfur Peace Agreement on May 5, nominated its leader, Minni Minnawi, to the post of senior assistant to Sudan’s president in meeting with a presidential adviser on Tuesday night, state media reported.
Once endorsed by President Omar al-Bashir — considered a formality — the position will make Minnawi the head of what will be the Darfur Authority, the administration that will run Darfur as an autonomous part of Sudan once the terms of the peace accord have been implemented.
“This is a historic day for our country,” Samani al-Wasilah, the state minister for foreign affairs, told the official Sudan Media Center after the SLA delegation handed the nomination to presidential adviser Majzoub Khalifa. “Sons of the homeland have come together to cement the pillars of peace and work together to implement the Darfur Peace Accord.”
But the DPA is in trouble. It has failed to stop the fighting, and its provision for the disarmament of militia has not been implemented. People continue to report killings, rapes and kidnappings to the United Nations, and refugees continue to arrive at Darfur’s camps for displaced people.
The UN chief envoy to Sudan, Jan Pronk, expressed “concern” Wednesday about the ongoing harassment of civilians and attacks, but he did not blame any specific group.
Pronk told reporters in Khartoum that even the rebels who do not support the May 5 accord — such as a breakaway faction of the SLA and the Justice and Equality Movement — were obliged to observe the cease-fire signed in 2004.
Minnawi himself told reporters in Cairo on Tuesday that the only achievement of the DPA was that the cease-fire was holding in some places.
“(In) some of the area now, there is a cease-fire 100 percent. The government respected the cease-fire and also our troops are respecting the cease-fire,” he said.
Speaking before the Tuesday night meeting, Minnawi said he would accept the nomination if it were made, and that he would soon return to Sudan. He did not give a date.
After the president has endorsed Minnawi’s appointment, it will have to be ratified by Sudan’s parliament, but this is considered a mere procedure.
The DPA sought to put a stop to three years of fighting between several rebel groups and pro-government forces that have killed 200,000 people and displaced another 2 million. The agreement is not popular in the refugee camps, where many people have tribal links to the leader of the breakaway SLA faction and argue that the peace terms are inadequate.
(ST/AP)