Darfur rebel leader says he will not attend Arusha meeting
July 18, 2007 (LONDON) — The leader of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) has announced that he will not take part in a meeting organized by the AU-UN envoys for the non signatory groups in preparation for the peace talks aimed at ending the four year conflict in the region.
The second international meeting for Darfur in Tripoli has welcomed the initiative of Darfur envoys to convene “leading personalities” of the holdout rebel groups in Arusha, north Tanzania on 3-5 August.
The meeting’s aim is to find a common ground for the demands of the non signatory rebels.
Al Nur said that world forsakes the plight of Darfur people and speaks about the reunification of the rebels.
He further added that “the so called factions were created by Khartoum, some countries or regional organizations because they want these phantom groups to ink a deal that does not bring tidings of security or accommodates the legitimate rights of Darfur people.”
Al-Nur said “In our view that international community has chosen the easy way, and decided to pressurize the victims of this conflict in order to satisfy the culprits in Khartoum. But we will never betray our people and the heavy responsibility that we shoulder.”
“The rights of the Darfur people is a red line”; he stressed.
He further said “to realize a genuine peace, world should put pressure on Khartoum to provide security for our people as we request and then we would proceed with negotiations to find a political solution of the conflict.”
The rebel holdout group demands that Khartoum undertakes some measures before the kicking off any negotiations. The SLM says that concrete steps must be taken to establish security in the region such as the disarmament of the Jinjaweed militias, to stop aerial bombardment of civilians, deployment of an international peacekeeping force with a robust mandate and facilitating the relocation of the IDPs and refugees in their villages.
The rebel leader renewed his commitment to the Abéché ceasefire agreement signed in 2004 despite violations on the part of Khartoum.
The U.S envoy to Sudan, Andrew Natsios, accused Khartoum on Friday July 13 of bombing civilian positions in Darfur and called on it to stop the practice immediately. “After a halt in the bombing between the beginning of February and the end of April 2007, the Sudanese government has resumed bombing in Darfur,” he said. “We urge the Sudanese government to end all bombing in Darfur immediately.”
According to a report published on July 10, by the UN OCHA, violence has escalated in Sudan’s Darfur region since January, throwing another 160,000 people out of their homes and forcing 4.2 million people, about two-thirds of the population, to go on relief aid.
(ST)