Rebel leader denies reports on meeting with US Bush

Dec 16, 2006 (LONDON) — A Darfur rebel leader denied reports that he met with the US president George W. Bush. “Such reports are pure product of Khartoum security service”, he said.

Abdelwahid al-Nur the leader of the Sudan Liberation Movement, denied reports that he travelled to Washington and met the US president George Bush. The rebel leader who was in months isolated in Eritrea, said such reports are false and fabricated by the “National Congress Party agents to compromise his relations with US officials”.

Since his departure from Eritrea al-Nur started an international tour to explain the position of his movement on the expected Darfur peace talks with the Sudanese government.

Such statement as well as others things are “part of campaign orchestrated by the Sudanese Islamist” who, instead of working for a lasting peace in the region, are “mobilizing all their energy to disseminate unfounded reports and defamation”.

Al-Nur renewed his appeal to the international community to put pressures on the Sudanese government to stop the killing of the innocent civilians in the region. He stated that his troops give him daily reports on killings and human right violations.

“Clearly Khartoum is not so serious to negotiate but to impose its military solution” he said.

In a report before a meeting held on Dec. 16 in Addis Ababa, the AU, which monitors the ceasefire, accused Khartoum of arming the militias.

“The security situation in Darfour is fast deteriorating mainly because of the re-emergence of Janjaweed militias,” the AU said in a six-page report. “[They] seem to have been supplied and rearmed and have been carrying out nefarious activities with impunity in parts of Darfour, particularly in areas controlled by the government of Sudan.”

(ST)