Western rebels say they shot down two army helicopters, cut of roads leading to main town
By ANDREW ENGLAND Associated Press Writer
NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 12, 2004 (AP) — Rebels in the Darfur region of western Sudan said Thursday they have shot down two army helicopters and cut off the roads leading to the region’s main city, disputing Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir’s claim that their yearlong insurgency has been crushed.
Using small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, the rebels have been launching hit-and-run raids against government positions around el-Fasher, the capital of Northern Darfur state, since the beginning of the week, said Abdulrahman Zakaria Hassib, a spokesman for Gibril Abdulkarim, a senior commander in the rebel Justice and Equality Movement.
JEM forces are fighting alongside the other rebel group active in Darfur – the Sudan Liberation Army – and about half of the combined 27,000 troops are involved in the current attacks, Hassib told The Associated Press by satellite telephone from an unidentified location along the Chad-Sudan border.
The rebels are currently moving south and east of el-Fasher to cut off the roads linking Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, and Nyala, the main city in Southern Darfur state, Hassib said.
The army helicopters were shot down Monday near el-Fasher, 800 kilometers (497 miles) southwest of Khartoum, he said.
It was not immediately possible to get comment from Sudanese government officials.
On Monday, el-Bashir said the military was “in full control” of the troubled Darfur region and offered amnesty to surrendering rebels. The army recently has announced several successes over the rebel groups in fighting near the border with Chad.
Hassib said the rebels had suffered no casualties in the fighting and said he did not know whether there had been government casualties.
“We don’t count the government casualties, we just take whatever we can take from them, vehicles, ammunition, weapons,” he said.
Peace talks between the insurgents and the government – scheduled for Feb. 14 in Geneva – have been called off because the government refused to attend, mediators and rebels said Wednesday.
Zakaria Mohammed Ali, JEM secretary-general, said the rebel actions were intended to prove that the rebellion had not been crushed.
“He (el-Bashir) doesn’t want to talk about peace so we will teach him a lesson … until he accepts peace,” Ali said in a telephone interview from Germany.
A government spokesman said Tuesday that el-Bashir was willing to hold talks with the rebels in Sudan. But Ali said the rebels would only negotiate with the government in a neutral venue outside Sudan under international mediation.
The insurgents say they are fighting for an equal share of the wealth of Africa’s largest nation as well as greater political representation. Hundreds have been killed in the fighting that broke out last February.
Aid agencies estimate the fighting has forced more than 600,000 people to flee their homes; about 100,000 people have fled into Chad.
The rebels and refugees accuse the government of bombing villages and using mounted militias to loot towns and villages. Journalists have witnessed a government plane drop a bomb on the Sudanese side of the border town of Tine. The government denies those claims.
The rebellion has intensified as talks between the government and southern rebels fighting a separate 21-year civil war inch toward conclusion. The talks are set to resume in Kenya on Tuesday.
Acting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Charles Snyder met Sudanese government officials on Wednesday in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, to discuss the peace process and the Darfur conflict.