JEM downplays defections to government near Darfur-Chad border
October 6, 2008 (EL FASHER) – The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) spokesman today downplayed the significance of a report that over one hundred JEM fighters surrendered to the government army in three locations in northern Darfur, saying that the defection to the government ranks was an event fabricated as part of a policy of denial and deception.
The government commander at Girgira on Sunday informed the UNAMID hybrid peacekeeping mission Sector West that 116 JEM fighters along with 13 vehicles surrendered in Kornoi, Girgira and Tine.
But JEM spokesman Ahmed Hussein Adam said in fact, “we have reports that the government hired the so-called JEM members and brought the vehicles to play this old piece of propaganda.”
Adam furthermore said that JEM is a structured movement and its members are committed to the cause of the Sudanese people and their struggle for peace, justice and equal development.
The reported defections occurred in a region of Darfur with cultural and economic ties to areas of both Libya and Chad. The area has been traversed by both JEM and Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) forces, as well as other armed groups. Tine is a border town with Chad, and early in the Darfur war it had been seized by the SLA. The destroyed village of Girgira, 50 km (31 miles) southwest of Tine, is also on the border with Chad.
Kornoi, a government-held town, was one of the northern Darfur towns where villagers sought refuge during counter-insurgency operations, although much of it was bombed and, according to Luis Moreno Ocampo, the International Criminal Court prosecutor, at least 225 mainly Zaghawa civilians were killed at the town between July 2003 and March 2004.
In a January 2008, JEM Chairman Khalil Ibrahim issued a decree dividing the areas under its control into states and districts. Kornoi was named as the capital of Kornoi district. But today the JEM spokesman said that the rebel movement had no forces by Kornoi, making it unlikely that any actual JEM forces had surrendered to the government in that location.
Adam further said that such behaviour by Khartoum proves once again that it still lacks the serious determination to reach peace in Darfur and to cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The UNAMID said it would contact JEM leader Khalil Ibrahim and the separate JEM National Unity faction to confirm these reports of defection.
It was not clear who the combatants were and whether the combatants were from the JEM faction led by Khalil Ibrahim or from the National Unity JEM faction.
(ST)