SLM Minawi arrives in Khartoum after dispute
Aug 6, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Late and amid kicking and shoving, former Darfur rebel leader Minni Arcua Minnawi arrived to a chaotic welcome in Khartoum on Sunday to speed up implementation of a May peace deal for Sudan’s vast west.
Minnawi, the only one of three negotiating rebel factions to sign the May accord with Khartoum, was due to arrive a day earlier but abruptly cancelled over a political dispute.
He accused the government of obstructing the deal by not making good on a promise to appoint him as special assistant to the president.
The government issued the decree on Saturday just hours after Minnawi’s Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) said they would stop implementing the May peace deal until Minnawi was appointed.
Again on Sunday he was hours late and in a disorganised welcome journalists, officials and ministers grappled in Khartoum’s airport as his delegation shoved its way inside.
“We apologise to all those who were waiting yesterday in the hot sun,” said Minnawi on his arrival. The tall thin figure was dressed in a smart suit rather than his usual green camouflage uniform.
“This peace is for all of Sudan, all the Sudanese people,” he said over throngs of journalists, crushing to hear him speak.
Majzoub al-Khalifa, presidential advisor and head of the government delegation at the Darfur talks, greeted Minnawi.
“The future before us is a strong future,” he said.
Relations between the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) leader and government partners seemed better as Minnawi blamed Saturday’s stand off on a lack of “communication and coordination”.
SLA officials said he would be sworn in as special assistant to the president, a political post created by the May accord, on Monday at the Republican Palace.
“Now Minni is in Khartoum we will see development for Darfur and implementation of the deal signed in (the Nigerian capital) Abuja,” said Ruqayim Mohamed Ibrahim, from Kutum in North Darfur and a member of the SLA.
But tens of thousands of Darfuris disagree with her, and have demonstrated angrily against the deal, saying it does not meet their basic demands. Most of the few hundreds of Darfuris had waited for Minnawi on Saturday in Khartoum were also opposed to the deal.
Opponents of the agreement say they want more compensation for war victims, more political posts and a monitoring role in disarming the Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, armed by the government to quell the rebellion.
The Janjaweed are blamed for the rape, pillage and murder that drove 2.5 million to flee their homes to miserable squatter camps in Sudan’s arid west or in neighbouring eastern Chad.
(Reuters)