Sudan offers amnesty to western rebels, shuns talks
KHARTOUM, Feb 9 (Reuters) – Sudan offered a one-month amnesty on Monday to rebels in the west of Africa’s largest country, but told a Geneva-based peace group it would not attend talks with the rebels in the Swiss city this weekend.
Sudan’s government told the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue in Geneva that it would not accept the invitation to the talks on a ceasefire in west Sudan, where aid agencies say a humanitarian crisis is unfolding after a year of conflict.
President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said government forces had regained full control of the impoverished Darfur region, but leaders from one of the two main rebel groups in the area said fighting and violence still raged.
“I hereby declare a general amnesty for those holding arms for a month as of today,” Bashir was quoted as saying on state radio. He said rebels could obtain pardons by presenting themselves at military or police posts.
Fighting erupted in Darfur a year ago with rebels accusing the government of oppressing Africans and favouring Arabs in an impoverished region historically prone to tensions between the two communities over water and grazing land.
The United Nations says more than 600,000 people have been internally displaced by the conflict, with another 95,000 living in makeshift camps on the border with Chad. It has warned of a serious humanitarian crisis.
“The major operations in Darfur have ended and the armed forces are in full control of the situation there,” Bashir said.
However, rebels from the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) disputed the president’s words.
“All of the things Bashir said are totally wrong. We have control of large parts of Darfur,” SLA Chairman Abdel Wahed Mohamed Ahmed al-Nur told Reuters.
He said government planes had bombed villages near Kebkabiya in Northern Darfur State on Monday.
The SLA is one of two rebel groups which had agreed to the Geneva talks, initially planned for February 14 and 15 but which may no longer be held.
A spokesman for the Geneva peace group said the Sudanese government had told it that it would not go. “We can confirm that the Sudanese government has declined to attend,” Andy Andrea said.
He added that the centre, which took part in a long-running but ultimately fruitless bid to negotiate a peace deal between Indonesia and Aceh rebels, was studying its next move.