Rebel SLM-Unity threatens to boycott Darfur peace talks

October 9, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — A key Darfur rebel group warned Tuesday it would not attend upcoming peace talks but instead “spread war” around Sudan if Khartoum did not immediately end reported offensives in the ravaged region.

The warning from the Sudan Liberation Army-Unity faction came as another rebel faction, the only one to have signed a 2006 peace accord with Khartoum, said it might also resume fighting amid the upsurge in violence.

If the offensives continue, the SLM-Unity will “be forced to renounce its engagements toward a ceasefire and work to spread war to other parts of Sudan,” SLM-Unity spokesman Mahjoub Hussein said in a faxed statement.

“The movement will suspend its participation at the Tripoli talks” if the Sudanese government and its militias continue their activities, it said, referring to new peace negotiations in the Libyan capital set to start on October 27.

Khartoum’s “all-out war” in Darfur “is proof that it wants to flee from the Tripoli talks,” Mahjoub said.

The warning came as the SLM faction of Minni Minawi, from which the SLM-Unity split after Minawi made peace with Khartoum, said it might resume fighting after what it said was a government attack on one of its towns that killed over 50 people.

The Sudanese government has denied involvement in the attack.

Conflict and famine in Darfur have left at least 200,000 people dead and two million displaced since Khartoum enlisted the Janjaweed militia to put down an ethnic minority revolt in 2003. Aid groups have blamed the militia in particular for widespread rape, murder and destruction of villages.

Khartoum says only 9,000 people have died in the conflict.

(AFP)