Darfur peace agreement signatories agree to unify ranks

Sept 20, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Armed groups in Darfur region ofwestern Sudan, who had signed a peace agreement with the government, have agreed on the necessity to unify their ranks and coordinate their efforts on issues concerning the country, the Sudan Vision daily reported on Wednesday.

Mohamed Musa Adam, spokesman of the Free Will, a break away faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), told the newspaperthat his faction and another faction of the SLM led by Minni Minawi had agreed on the unity between them.

The two factions are committed to a full coordination with all the movements which signed the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA), the spokesman said.

He stressed that the two parties had realized that if they failed to unite themselves, any call by them on behalf of Darfur would be baseless.

The Free Will has extended congratulations to Minawi, who had been appointed as the Senior Assistant to the President of the Republic recently according to DPA and discussed with him political and social issues as well as ways of coordination.

Adam said the two parties, during a meeting between them at thePresidential Palace in Khartoum, asserted that the Darfur issue was a purely national problem that should be resolved without any external interference.

The spokesman called on the international society to give the DPA signatories enough chance to implement the agreement, adding that the agreement was a preliminary test for its signatories on their way of achieving peace and stability in Darfur.

The Sudanese government and the SLM faction led by Minawi signed the DPA in Nigerian capital Abuja on May 5 this year. But the agreement was rejected by other main rebel factions which claimed that it failed to meet all their demands.

(Xinhua/ST)