Darfur rebels dismiss Arab League initiative to resolve crisis
September 9, 2008 (LONDON) – The Darfur rebels groups criticized an initiative announced by the Arab League in Cairo today to resolve the crisis in the war ravaged region.
The resolution adopted by the Arab League proposed Qatar as the host country for the peace talks between the Sudanese government and the Darfur rebels.
Ahmed Hussein spokesperson of Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) said that his group welcomes any efforts to achieve peace. However he questioned whether the Arab League qualifies as an impartial mediator.
“The question is whether these [peace] efforts will be conducted in an unbiased atmosphere and pressuring Khartoum to make the necessary concessions” he said.
The JEM official noted that the Arab League has “maintained silence over human rights violations in Darfur including the Kalma camp massacre last month”.
The Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM)-Unity said that the Arab League initiative “came late five years and only came to save the Sudanese president of the impasse in front of international justice”.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo Ocampo announced in mid-July that he requested an arrest warrant against Sudanese president Omar Hassan Al-Bashir. Following that Sudan has been looking into ways that would allow it to avoid confrontation with the international community.
The group’s spokesperson Mahgoub Hussein added that the Arab League “cannot be fair” and that “it lost its credibility before the Darfur crisis”.
Abdel-Wahid Al-Nur, leader of Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) said that it is “premature to talk about peace talks before conflict suspension”.
“The government is attacking our positions as we speak in an unprovoked attack. They are violating the cease-fire agreements. This is not an attitude of party seeking peace” he added.
Al-Nur further said that the government “wants to get around their obligations by seeking meaningless peace negotiations”.
“They already know what they need to do. It does not take 4 or 5 rounds of talks to get this done. The disarmament of Janjaweed militias, stopping the killings of civilians, facilitating humanitarian aid and deployment of peacekeepers are all in the hands of Khartoum to make it happen” the SLM leader said.
International experts also say more than 300,000 were killed and 2 million have been driven from their homes by the conflict in Darfur, a region that is roughly the size of France.
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DAVID N.
Darfur rebels dismiss Arab League initiative to resolve crisis
My question is whether or not, for the sake of Darfuri civillians, do you ever consider to have independence of Darfur from Sudan in 2011, because what is it for unite with ever seems difference on ethnic culture with Sudan and Darfur, it will never unite it, it is impossible. Whether you called it Maghreb sub-saharan Darfuri encountering with nilotic arab origins of Khartoum, either of chose Mt.Sinai the strength of sub-saharan maghrebs or River Nile, ofcourse the strength of Egypt and Sudan. My idea must be Darfur should separated completery from Sudan, and made independence of Darfur 2011. Darfur’s strength never comes along with Nile, but from Sahara, so consider it most be separated from Sudan and not to unite with Sudan.