Sudan says ready for separate peace talks with rebel JEM

March 18, 2008 (KHARTOUM) – A Sudanese official affirmed government’s readiness to hold separate negotiations with the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) if it is determined to achieve peace in Darfur region.

Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) leader Khalil Ibrahim said two days ago that his is ready for one-on-one peace talks in Libya’s with the Sudanese government. But he added that it should be mediated by former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and negotiations should spread beyond Darfur to cover “marginalised” territories across Sudan.

Sudanese state minister of Information and Communication welcomed the move saying “If Ibrahim is serious, the government does not have any problem for holding the negotiations at any place.”

“We do not care about the forms of the negotiations, what we care about is the results, which should be an end of the suffering of the Darfur people,” the Sudanese minister noted.

However the influential Nafi Ali Nafi who is charge with the file of the peace talks with Darfur rebels didn’t make any comment.

JEM’s call enraged some Darfur rebel leaders. Isam al-Haj the spokesperson of Sudan Liberation Movement of Ahmed Abdelshafi, criticised the JEM proposal wondering how Khalil Ibrahim wants to fight marginalisation will he asking Khartoum to negotiate with him alone and to exclude the existing rebel movements.

Ibrahim on Sunday had said that no other groups should now be involved: “The main players in Darfur are JEM. There are really no other groups in Darfur apart from JEM.” Other factions, he said, were just a “media phenomenon” with no real support in the ground.

Ibrahim said other regions would include neighbouring Kordofan, where JEM clashed with government forces last year, and the country’s east, which ended a low-level insurgency against the government in 2006.

(ST)