W.Sudan rebels say decapitate militia leader

KHARTOUM, Dec 24 (Reuters) – Rebels battling government forces in western Sudan said on Wednesday they had decapitated the leader of a government-armed militia and showed civilians his head as proof of his death.

Rebels in the arid Darfur region say Arab tribesmen in the west of Africa’s largest country are armed by the government to fight them, but also turn against civilian farming communities.

The Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), one of two main rebel groups that launched a revolt in the remote Darfur area in February, said they killed an Arab militia leader known as Shukrsalah after capturing him in battle.

“We laid an ambush when his forces were in retreat. We captured him, took his car and then cut off his head,” one SLA fighter told Reuters.

Government armed forces spokesman Mohammed Bashir Suleiman denied Shukrsalah had been killed and added his forces were not connected to what he called “revenge killings”.

Rights group Amnesty International says the Darfur conflict had displaced more than 600,000 people and a major cause of the troubles was injustice and marginalisation, reasons both rebel groups cite for their revolt.

A merchant living in rebel-held Tina on the Chadian border said SLA forces drove into town last week in the distinctive black jeep known to belong to Shukrsalah.

“Rebel forces were driving through town in Shukrsalah’s car and were shouting he was dead… then they hung his head from a tree,” he said.

“We need people to know we are protecting them and that this man who cursed their lives was actually dead,” the SLA fighter said.

Analysts say the Darfur conflict threatens a peace deal being negotiated in Kenya between the government and a separate rebel group to end two decades of civil war in the south.

The SLA signed a truce with Khartoum in September, but talks in Chad failed last week with both sides blaming each other. The other main rebel group in Darfur, the Justice and Equality Movement, has not entered talks with Khartoum.

A Sudanese MP told Reuters on Wednesday that President Omar Hassan al-Bashir had sent a letter to parliament requesting an extension to Sudan’s four-year-old state of emergency for another year.

Bashir cited unspecified threats to “national security” to extend the law which gives the president sweeping powers, such as an ability to order indefinite detentions and appoint officials who should otherwise be elected.