Darfur rebel commanders decry “misleading” statements by UN-AU envoys
January 20, 2008 (EL-FASHER) — A Darfur rebel movement today denounced statements made by UN and African Union (AU) envoys following the meeting held last Thursday and accused them of disseminating misleading information.
The military spokesperson of SLM Nimer Mohamed Ibrahim told Sudan Tribune by satellite phone from Darfur that they received the force commander of the UNAMID, Martin Luther Agwai, accompanied by Darfur envoys Jan Eliasson and Salim Ahmed Salim from the UN and the AU, in the town of Mulagat, in northern Darfur.
The SLM official had a two-fold message to Eliasson and Salim.
“We advised Eliasson to communicate his peace proposals to our leader Abdel-Wahid al-Nur.” Nimer added
The rebel spokesperson also said they made it “crystal clear” to Salim that they don’t want anything to do with him because “he is a part of the problem and not a mediator”.
A news report by the UN news service last Friday said that a spokesperson from SLM led by Abdel-Wahid, confirmed the movement’s readiness to participate in the political process and that they urged the envoys to meet with Abdel-Wahid.
Nimer said the Eliasson and Salim contacted the Commander in Chief of the military wing of SLM, Abdel-Gader Ibrahim Abdel-Rahman also known as Gadora but he declined the meeting.
Ibrahim said the agenda of the meeting was to discuss the deployment of the hybrid forces in areas controlled by the rebel movement and ways to cooperate together.
The rebel official said the rebel delegation was composed of many officials from the SLA including Abdalla Haran, the chairman of the Political Bureau, Abdalla Khalil Abakr deputy chairman of the Political Bureau, Mohamed Abdel-Salam aka Tarada, deputy Commander in chief of the SLA, Yousef Ahmed Yousef, Chief of Staff of the SLA and Yousef Adam Abdel-Samad, commander of Mulagat as well as Nimer.
Nimer stressed that the SLM/A delegation held meetings with General Agwai only. He added that the Darfur envoys spoke with the local chief (Umda) and addressed the local civilians in the area.
He expressed his disappointment at the “baseless propaganda” by Darfur envoys adding “this move shows the difficulty we would face if we were to deal with people we don’t trust.”
The SLM spokesperson further said that it is “immoral” for the UN and AU officials “to hide our real position and transmit lies to outside world. How we can deal with them? This brings the integrity of the envoys and their real motivation into question”
International experts estimate some 200,000 have died and over 2 million have been driven from their homes during 4-1/2 years of fighting in Darfur. Sudan puts the death toll from the conflict at just 9,000.
(ST)