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Sudan Tribune

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France likely to expel Darfur rebel Nur

France likely to expel Darfur rebel Nur

December 10, 2007 (PARIS) — France will probably force Sudanese rebel leader Abdel Wahed Mohamed el-Nur to leave the country by the end of the month for failing to attend peace talks on Darfur, a French diplomat said on Monday.

Nur, a founder of the Darfur insurgent Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), is living in France under an authorisation that expires at the end of December, the diplomat said.

“His authorisation to stay will probably not be renewed due to his non-participation in the Sirte negotiations,” said the diplomat, who declined to be identified.

Peace talks brokered by the United Nations and the African Union between Sudan’s government and Darfur rebel groups in the Libyan city of Sirte stalled in late October. Most major insurgent groups boycotted the negotiations.

Nur, who controls few troops but enjoys support among Darfuris, refused to attend, demanding a series of conditions including the deployment of an international peacekeeping force and security on the ground before negotiations.

His stance infuriated diplomats who said security could not be achieved without talks. A number of countries, including Britain and France, threatened to take measures against Nur, but stopped short of specifying the sanctions.

The French announcement was broadly welcomed by diplomats.

“We have been pushing for everybody to participate in the talks,” said one European diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity. “If this encourages him to do so then it could be a positive thing.”

But the announcement was criticised by a leading rebel figure, the leader of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) Khalil Ibrahim.

“France does not have the right to expel a refugee,” Ibrahim told Reuters. “He went there to escape the suppression of the Sudanese government. It is up to him if he wants to go to peace talks or not. This kind of pressure will not work.”

Sudan’s state news agency Suna reported that French President Nicolas Sarkozy had given Nur a deadline to attend peace talks by the end of December or leave France.

An official at Sarkozy’s office stopped short of such a comment, saying: “If Nur does not go to Sirte, the president will draw the consequences.”

The U.N. special envoy for Darfur Jan Eliasson said he never commented on the issue of sanctions. “These are the decisions of individual member states or the Security Council collectively,” said a spokeswoman from his office.

Eliasson has returned to Khartoum from a four-day tour of Darfur and south Sudan’s capital Juba where he tried to persuade rebel factions to join the Sirte negotiations in the new year. He is due to make an announcement on the trip on Tuesday.

International experts estimate some 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million been driven from their homes in Darfur’s conflict which is entering its fifth year.

(Reuters)

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