SLM Minawi accuses Sudanese army of attacking HQ in Darfur
Sept 30, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — The Darfur rebel faction which signed a troubled May peace deal with the Khartoum government accused the Sudanese army in comments published Saturday of launching an attack on its headquarters.
A faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Minni Minawi threatened to withdraw from the national unity government in Khartoum in protest at Thursday’s assault, which it said it had repulsed.
“A group of armed men belonging to the government army on Thursday attacked our general command headquarters in Giraida during a visit by SLM deputy chairman Dr Al Rayah Mahmoud Jumaa and SLM army commander Jumaa Mohamed Haggar,” spokesman Al Tayeb Khamis Mohamed told the Al Sudani daily.
He said SLM forces “managed to repulse the assault and take 14 of the attackers prisoner”, adding that the POWs “confessed that they belonged to the (government) armed forces”.
He accused the army of deliberately targeting the top SLM officials and warned that the movement would withdraw from the government in Khartoum if there were any further violations of the May peace deal signed in Abuja.
“The government should bear in mind that the Movement (SLM) still maintains its forces,” the SLM spokesman warned.
“When it becomes certain that the peace agreement was only a means for deception, it will order the senior presidential assistant (SLM mainstream leader Minni Minnawi) to leave the Republican Palace and return to the war which will start from Khartoum.”
An armed forces spokesman denied that the army was behind the alleged raid, insisting that it continued to respect the Abuja agreement signed with Minnawi’s faction of the SLM.
“This is a strange report… Our forces cannot attack the SLM … we respect the peace agreement we have concluded with them,” the spokesman told AFP, asking not to be identified.
“Only two days ago we had a meeting with the senior presidential assistant, Minni Minnawi, and the two sides agreed on starting implementation of the security arrangements agreement,” the spokesman added.
“The meeting also discussed the integration of 5,000 SLM men in the government army and other regular forces, and 3,000 others in the civil service.”
The alleged raid on the SLM mainstream headquarters came amid reports of intensified fighting in Darfur this month between government troops and rebel factions, which declined to sign the May peace deal.
The government has come under mounting pressure to agree to the deployment of up to 20,000 UN peacekeepers as mandated by the Security Council in late August to shore up the fragile Abuja agreement but President Omar Al Beshir has repeatedly rejected any such deployment.
In the face of Beshir’s defiance, the African Union this month agreed to extend the mandate of its force in Darfur until the end of the year.
(AFP/ST)