Breakaway JEM faction wants to participate in Darfur talks
October 7, 2007 (LONDON) — The following is the text of a letter by the Commander Idrees Azrag the leader of a breakaway faction of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) addressed to the UN Secretary General Ban-Ki-Moon. The splinter faction requests to participate in the forthcoming peace talks scheduled on 27 October 2007 in Libya.
His Excellency Mr. Ban Ki-Moon
Our Ref: JEM/PT/CO110
UN Secretary General
19 September 2007
Subject: JEM Position on the Forthcoming Political Negotiations with GoS
His Excellency Mr. Ban Ki-Moon
Sudan Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) would like on behalf of Darfuri People, to express its highest appreciation and gratitude to the UN, for the invaluable efforts it exerted to alleviate the suffering of our people in Darfur and also to thank you personally and your staff in the AU-UN mediation team, for their consistent support and hard working to end the suffering of our people in Darfur and the Sudan at large.
Your Excellency, JEM would like to make its position clear regarding the following:
1. Reiteration of its emphasis that the ongoing conflict in Darfur is a political one, and it believes that a peaceful political negotiation is the only feasible mechanism to address the root causes of this conflict.
2. Confirmation of the strongest commitment to N’Djamena cease-fire agreement signed on April 2004 and the strongest support to all UN Security Council resolutions on Darfur. Also JEM restates that the deployment of the UN-AU hybrid operation (UNAMID) with a view to putting an end to on-going attacks on civilians and to ensure their protection is an essential and indispensable step to commence and engage in any meaningful political negotiation.
3. The Khartoum regime and its Janjaweed militias are still escalating military operations, continuously violating the ceasefire agreement and committing severe human rights violations against our people on daily bases. Therefore, JEM calls upon UN to accelarate the deployment of the UN-AU hybrid operation (UNAMID) and urges international community to exert a genuine pressure on Government of Sudan (GoS) to fulfill its international obligations and respect human rights and stop mass killing of our people.
4. To create a conducive engagement in the coming peace talks; JEM is ready to participate in Darfur Peace Conference scheduled for 27th October in Tripoli, JEM is prepared to deliver proposals that envision common denomination among the movements on the issues to be negotiated.
5. As a matter of fact, JEM confirms that both the two main movements in Darfur JEM and SLA have witnessed internal fragmentations and splintering thus, this well-established fact must be acknowledged as a reality with regard to the armed opposition groups of Darfur and it must not be denied.
6. In order to facilitate the process of negotiations and to reach a viable solution, everlasting peace and stability in Darfur, JEM urges AU-UN mediation team to adopt more comprehensive and inclusive approach that aims to engage all effective splinter groups from the two movements in any political negotiations and not to exclude any of them.
7. JEM is really concerned that on many occasions it has been excluded from participation in consultation meetings arranged by AU-UN mediation team; either in Tripoli or Arusha or the failed Chad meeting despite our continuous contact with them, JEM can no longer accept such practices of exclusion, JEM demands that the AU-UN mediation team should revisit their method based on preconception and to revise their predilection and biased stance towards our movement.
8. JEM considers the AU-UN mediation team has deliberately excluded our movement from participating in both the Tripoli, Arush and Chad meetings. In our discussions with Mr. Heidi and Mr. Sam Ibok of the AU-UN mediation team; they were not able to explain the criteria they used to accept some factions splintered from SLA and which resulted in rejecting our movement. Anyhow we are aware that since we had uncovered Mr. Khalil real tribal image; his faction has begun to exert all means to prevent our movement from taking part in any negotiations. Furthermore they resorted to all means of deception, bigotry, distortion of image and even putting pressure on the AU-UN mediation team, as his faction still fear from disclosing his real size and his weak support among Darfuris. However, we kindly urge both the AU and UN to listen to both factions of JEM in equal footing. JEM reaffirms that dealing with spirit of neutrality and impartiality is an indispensable factor toward exploring the complex reality of Darfur, and to avoid deadlock and replication of Abuja grave mistakes. JEM thereby requires that the mediators in question should not exclude any effective faction and must not be seen to support one faction against the other.
9. Our movement is not a marginal entity as our opponents try to depict and portray it to the AU-UN mediation team; as a movement we are a solid political entity which constitutes a strong military organ that enjoys a broad social base and accommodates the diverse groups and elements from the multicultural spectrum of the Darfuri people. And it’s well known to the all that our leadership participated in all stages of the ongoing political and military developments in Darfur since the very beginning of the uprising in 2001.
10. JEM declared its political wing in November 2001 and staged its first military operation on February 2003. After five years of political and military struggle; on April 2006 the movement had experienced differences amongst the leadership and eventually splintered into two factions. One faction is led by Mr. Idrees Ibrahim Azraq as chairman and the other by the former Chairman Mr. Khalil Ibrahim. The causes of the internal differences in JEM (as published in our memorandum) can be summarized as follows:
a. Adoption of Ethnic chauvinism, tribalism and nepotism by Mr. Khalil and his entourage.
b. Inclination of Mr. Khalil to Islamic fundamentalism and pertaining of this of Khalil’s group link with the unpopular fundamentalist leader Hassan Turabi.
c. Total control of the movement by his family members.
d. Negligence and heedlessness towards the huge suffering of Darfurian people, the refugees and the internally displaced people.
e. Continuous egregious violation of human rights.
f. The incessant attempts of Mr. Khalil to impose from above commanders from the Republic of Chad upon JEM army.
g. Absence of transparency accumulation of wealth in the name of the movement.
11. For the above mentioned reasons, dissatisfaction spread among the grass roots. In order to salvage the movement from fragmentation and splintering, some leaders issued a corrective memorandum and submitted it to Mr. Khalil Ibrahim in order to address those problems and concerns; but Mr. Khalil Ibrahim turned blind eyes to the memo and deaf ears to the call of majority. Further more he tried to strengthen his control by excluding the critics.
12. When JEM was established all the founding members committed to work together in order to establish a political movement that is based on the respect of institutions and principle of democracy, respect of human rights and accommodation of ethnic, cultural, religious, and regional diversity in Sudan. But after several years of the revolutionary experience and evaluation of JEM’s political struggle and achievements we found out that JEM under the leadership of Mr. Khalil has been diverted out of the JEM’s principles entrenching the movement both in tribalism and nepotism and manipulation of the movement by a certain ethnic agenda, where the key posts in the executive organs and advisory body were filled by Mr. Khalil’s siblings, relatives, peoples from his clan and family as can be noticed in the following :
a. Mr. Khalil Ibrahim Mohammed the chairperson.
b. Mr. Gibril Ibrahim Mohammed (his brother) economic adviser to the chairperson and the head of wealth sharing committee to Abuja negotiation.
c. Mr. Abdul Aziz Nur Oshar (half brother) appointed by his brother as deputy secretary for political bureau but in reality he acted in his full capacity as a secretary for political bureau to the date of the issuance of the corrective memorandum. Mr. Osher also has been appointed against the will of the people in eastern Sudan and against the sprit of the statute of the movement as the General Commander of the Eastern front where he violated human rights against JEM members.
d. Mr. Ahmed Tugoud Lisan (his uncle) occupied the secretary of foreign affairs, the head of JEM delegation in Abuja negotiation and the head of power sharing committee to Abuja negotiation.
e. Mr. Bahar Idrees Abugarda the deputy of Chairman and the General Secretary and at the same time the chairperson of Darfur region.
f. General Abdalla Banda (his cousin) the Commander-in-Chief of the Movement (Currently he has splintered from Mr. Khalil and he is in his way to unite with our group)
g. Mr. Bishara Suleiman Anur Abdulrahman (his cousin) secretary for treasury and investment.
h. Mr. Abubakar Hamid Alnur Abdurahman (his cousin) political adviser of the chairperson and JEM coordinator in the military field.
i. Mr. Ez alddin Beji secretary of presidential office affairs.
j. Mr. Taj Alddin Niam JEM representative in the ceasefire committee and deputy of the head of security arrangement committee to Abuja negotiation.
k. Mr. Omer Bakhit the deputy-chairman of Darfur Region
l. Dr. Mahmoud Abakar Tinawi Abdulrahman (his uncle) the vice chairperson of the general congress.
m. Mr. Yousif Mohamed Nurein (from his clan) the vice chairperson of the legislative council.
n. Mr. Mohammed Suleiman Alnur Abdulrahman (his cousin) the representative of the movement to Libya.
o. Mr. Zakaria Mohammed Ali Abdulrahman (his cousin) the chairperson of the movement in Germany.
p. 24 members out of 27 members in the AU-run Cease-fire Commission and the Joint Commission are from his family and clan.
13. It deserves noticing that most of the members of the JEM executive organs and advisory body under Mr. Khalil leadership descend from a certain Abdulrahman who is his grandfather. The split occurred in JEM because Mr. Khalil refused to listen to the call of majority of the general congress to settle the difference, the majority of the general congress and the members of the legislative council collected signatures emphasizing to hold the general congress to solve the problem, but Mr. Khalil refused to abide by decision of the majority and boycotted the second general conference of the movement which was held in the Ethiopian Capital, Addis Ababa, from the 30th December 2006 to 3rd January 2007. The second general conference was convened by delegates representing various sectors including commanders from military fields, youths, students, women sector, representatives of IDPs and the refugees’ camps and JEM chapters abroad. Representatives of EU, Embassies of South Africa, France, and Germany attended as observers in addition to many independent observers and journalists. The general congress elected in direct democratic process JEM leaders and elected Mr. Idrees Ibrahim Azraq as the chairman of JEM. Since Mr. Khalil and some of his relatives had refused to abide by the call of the majority and boycotted the general conference, the emergence of a new faction became a reality. Thus our movement has formed its organs which consist of the General Congress, the legislative Council, the presidential Office, Military Council and the General Secretariat in addition to its organs at regions, states, locals and villages levels. Most of the JEM leaders joined our group except a few who preferred to continue under the leadership of Mr. Khalil because of their tribal affinities.
14. Our movement is the only faction among the several movements and factions in Darfur which held a general conference and elected its leadership democratically. Although some circles try to distort our image and to minimize our role; yet it is well known that our leadership participated in all stages of the ongoing political and military developments in Darfur, since the very beginning of the uprising, we participated in all phases of talks and negotiations, from N’Djamena to Tripoli and Abuja, to name but a few; it was Mr. Naser Aldeen Hussein one of the founding leaders and the present General secretary of our movement who led JEM’s delegation to N’djamena peace talks and it was he who signed the Humanitarian Ceasefire Agreement on the Conflict in Darfur in N’djamena on 8th April 2004 on behalf of JEM, Mr. Idrees Ibrahim Azraq the Chairman of our movement was the secretary of information and spokesman of the then united JEM, he participated in Tripoli and Abuja talks, Mr. Ibrahim Yousif Beng the present Deputy Chairman was the head of JEM’s chapter in UK, Mr. Yousif Abubakar the treasurer of our movement was the secretary of youth and students and the head of JEM’s chapter in Gulf Region.
15. Besides political leaders there are prominent military leaders joint the movement since the beginning of the struggle who aligned reformation and associated with political wing as an integral part of the movement, to name but a few; Commander Abdulmajeed Doda the Commander-in-Chief of the Movement, Commander Adam Ismail, Commander Adam Mohammed Suleiman …. Also it worth mentioning that Commander General Abdalla Banda, the former Commander-in-Chief of Mr. Khalil’s faction, and his followers are currently coordinating with us and we are in the process to unite together.
16. Politically, JEM is an active and energetic entity that enjoy extensive presence among students, refugees and IDP camps and the Darfuri traditional leadership and Darfuris in the diaspora, our chapters are active home and abroad, we play a vital a role in highlighting the sufferance of Darfuri people in an active cooperation with both local and international human rights groups shedding light on what happening in Darfur into the awareness of both local and international communities in this regard we refer to our website: www.sudanjem.info.
17. Militarily JEM has presence on the ground in all the three states of Darfur and also in Kordofan and we urge the AU and UN to make arrangement in order to verify about our presence on the ground. However, contrary to other factions our movement is still abiding by N’Djamena ceasefire Agreement which was signed then by the current general secretary of our movement.
18. As we mentioned earlier, JEM is still abiding by N’Djamena Ceasefire Agreement which was signed then by the current general secretary of our movement. However, if the mediators deliberately continue to exclude us from the on going consultations and the coming peace talks it will be very difficult for us to carry on abiding by N’Djamena Ceasefire Agreement or cooperating with the mediators in future.
19. JEM emphasize that the representatives of the movement who were present in Arusha meetings stand for a tiny ally of certain groups representing not more than 10% of the spectrum of Darfuris therefore AU-UN mediation team must not consider them as the sole representative of Darfur.
20. JEM accentuate the necessity of holding consultation meetings that embrace all movements in order to create a common ground among these movements before any engagement in negotiations
21. JEM is willing to cooperate with the AU and UN to seek means for political solution and to build peace and stability in Darfur. Since the general conference in 2006 JEM tried to explore all means and ways to collaborate with mediators we received but a deliberate negligence an exclusion from the AU and UN as had happened in the eve of Arusha meeting. At any rate, JEM urges ONCE MORE the mediators to heed impartiality in dealing with all factions.
Yours Sincerely,
Naser Aldeen Hussein Dafalla
Secretary General
Sudan Justice and Equality Movement
Copy to:
H.E. President Alpha Oumare Konaré, Chairman of the AU Commission
H.E. Jan Eliasson, the UN General Secretary Special Envoy to Darfur
H.E. Mr. Salim Ahmed Salim, the AU Special Envoy to Darfur
H.E. Dr. Ali Treki, the Libyan Secretary for AU
H.E. Mr. Rodolphe Adada the Special Representative for Darfur and Head of the Joint AU-UN peacekeeping mission in Darfur
Representatives of the Permanent Members of the UN Security Council
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