Darfur rebels call assembly ahead of peace talks

September 16, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — A Darfur rebel group said on Sunday it was planning an assembly of fighters, supporters and displaced families to work out demands ahead of peace talks with Khartoum set for October.

Khalil Ibrahim, head of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), said he expected more than 2,000 people to attend the meeting in an undisclosed rebel-held area of Darfur on Oct. 25, two days before the peace talks start in Libya.

“We want everyone to come, supporters here, supporters abroad, refugees, IDPs (internally displaced people), students, women. It will take place in a liberated area. We want to talk about peace, about their demands, so we can take them to the peace talks,” he said.

Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir released a joint statement with the United Nations on Sept. 6 agreeing to hold talks in Libya on Oct. 27, cease hostilities in Darfur and prepare for the arrival of a 26,000-strong joint U.N. and African Union peacekeeping force.

More than four years of fighting has left 200,000 people dead in Darfur and driven another 2.5 million from their homes, international experts say. Khartoum has accused the western media of exaggerating the figures.

Ibrahim urged Bashir to cease hostilities before the talks, saying violence in the interim could threaten their success.

“If he is planning to carry on attacks right up to the talks, then we will not be able to go to Libya.”

Bashir has said his government was willing to observe a ceasefire in Darfur from the start of the Libyan negotiations.

Fighting has continued in the western region since the talks were announced. Last week, JEM and another rebel group accused the government of using helicopter gunships and Antonov aircraft to attack their positions in the northern town of Haskanita.

The government said it had been caught in a rebel ambush.

(Reuters)