UN envoy urges rebel leader to participate in Darfur peace process
July 19, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — The UN envoy to Darfur, Jan Eliasson, has appealed the leader of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), Abdelwahid al-Nur to attend the forthcoming meeting to prepare peace talks with Khartoum to defend his plight.
Eliasson, who spoke lengthily about Darfur IDPs and their suffering in the camps, urged Abdelwahid al-Nur to attend Arusha meeting, and regretted his rejection saying “I also hope that they (Abedlwahid) understand that we want to put the IDP population interest in the center of these negotiations: the need for compensation, the need for security, the right to return to their land, which is an absolutely crucial issue.”
In an implicit response to Al-Nur request related to the deployment of International troops Eliansson said “I am very happy that there has been an agreement on both the Heavy Support Package and the hybrid. We hope to see these deployed as soon as possible.”
He also repeatedly mentioned that they asked Khartoum to collaborate and to not carry out military operation during the talks.
Al Nur who is largely considered by Darfur IDPs as their representative to negotiate a peace deal with the Sudanese government had told Sudan Tribune yesterday that he would not go the AU-UN meeting in north Tanzania. He said Khartoum should create a conductive environment before the talks and this implies to stop aerial bombardments on the civilians and disarm its militias. He also urged the deployment of the international troops and the return of the refugees and IDPs in their villages.
Al-Nur refused to sign Abuja deal because he asks that Darfur to be considered as one region, Individual compensation to be allocated to the IDPs and refugees, to respect the land propriety (Hawakeer), and to give Darfur people more political representation on the national level.
“We hope that he understands that this process is a serious one and that he will be taking part in it. We need him on our side and I hope that we will see a positive influence from him. We hope that he will have some type of representation from his side in Arusha but, above all, we hope and count very much on him playing a role in the negotiations process.” Eliasson said.
He further added “This is an opportunity that must not be missed and we want to keep the door open for AbdulWahid.”
One of the leading field commanders of the SLA has accused the UN and the African Union of ignoring a request they had filed to give them the necessary support to gather the field commanders of the movement in South, West and North Darfur in order to reunite the military command of the movement.
The dissidence of Minawi, who was the head of military command of the SLA, and the successive military operations conducted by Khartoum against the positions of the holdout group have provoked the insulation and the dispersion of the military command of the group.
The AU-UN mediators consider Arusha meeting as the anti-chamber for the peace talks. Eliasson said “We hope that by the process that we are now sketching and showing, rather, they would be encouraged to bring their positions together and unify them as much as possible. If they could go on further and identify a common negotiations team that would of course be ideal.”
Also Eliasson said the peace talks with Khartoum will be kept to limited group of rebel movements but they will do the necessary to bring the voice of the other political and social forces in the region.
(ST)