JEM rebel leader says no truce for Darfur talks

September 25, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Darfur rebel leader Khalil Ibrahim said on Tuesday he would carry on fighting during upcoming peace talks until a final settlement is reached to end the conflict in western Sudan.

Ibrahim, head of the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), also said he was dismissing his deputy, Bahr Idriss Abu Garda, accusing him of secret meetings with the government to undermine the movement.

“We will not cease fire before we reach a political settlement,” Ibrahim told Reuters from Darfur. “Ceasing fire is a termination of the resistance and revolution,” he added.

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said during a rare visit this month to Italy that he would observe a ceasefire in Darfur when peace talks with rebels, scheduled for Oct. 27 in Libya, begin.

Ibrahim, whose group has been the mainstay behind fighting with the government in the far east of Darfur in recent months, said JEM would attend the talks but it would not lay down arms.

“There is no goodwill from the other side. This is only a trick,” he said, adding the three rebel movements that negotiated in previous talks until May 2006 had abided by an earlier truce, which the government violated.

Only one faction signed the 2006 peace deal which has been rejected by many in Darfur as inadequate.

Since then the rebels have split into more than a dozen rival groups. But a recent military alliance between JEM and Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) Unity faction has made them the biggest military threat to Khartoum in Darfur.

SANCTIONS THREAT

In a sign of further splits, Ibrahim said Abu Garda, a veteran of the conflict, was sacked and the movement would reshuffle its executive to strengthen ranks ahead of talks.

“He (Abu Garda) is working together with the government,” Ibrahim said.

Rebels have often accused Khartoum of trying to divide their ranks, and mediators have described government attempts to negotiate deals with individual commanders as “unhelpful” as rebels worked to reach a common platform ahead of peace talks.

SLA founder and chairman Abdel Wahed Mohamed el-Nur has said he will not attend peace talks until there is security on the ground. He has few troops in Darfur but commands massive popular support, especially among Darfur’s largest Fur tribe.

Mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing central government of neglecting the remote west. Khartoum mobilised militias to quell the revolt.

International experts estimate some 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million driven from their homes during 4-1/2 years of fighting in Darfur. Washington calls the violence genocide.

Khartoum rejects the term and says the West has exaggerated the conflict, putting the death toll at 9,000.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte last week threatened sanctions for those who did not attend October talks.

“If an important rebel group chooses not to attend … that should not be a cost-free choice,” Negroponte said. “The notion of sanctions is not limited to the government alone. It also relates to rebel groups’ leaders.”

Ibrahim, who himself has been sanctioned by Washington, dismissed the threat.

“The United States doesn’t have carrots for us — only sticks,” he said. “They should know by now that when they threaten they only complicate the situation.”

“They should stop the threats. It will not help the peace.”

(Reuters)