Keep Darfur and Chad issues seperate, rebel chief says
October 12, 2008 (PARIS) — Darfur rebel chief said there is no room for calls to mix Darfur peace talks and the Sudan Chad relations stressing that peace talks should deal only with the root causes of the conflict in western Sudan.
Abdel Wahid Al-Nur the founder of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) expressed frustration about statements saying that there should be joint move to involve Sudan Chad relations in any future negotiations between Darfur conflict parties to end the five years conflict.
“The solution of Darfur crisis should not be mixed with Sudan – Chad relations “because there are the root cause of the conflict and the consequences of the conflict,” Al-Nur said. “Chad is definitely is not one of the causes of this conflict,” he underlined.
He further said that the solution of Sudan-Chad problems should be resolved as inter-states conflict. “We rejected formally any linkage between the two conflicts” he added. The Chadian situation has its proper causes and many of it go far from what is happening in Darfur.
The rebel chief said the mechanism of Dakar agreement signed last March or the previous agreements mediated by Libya and Saudi Arabia may work better for resolving the conflict between the two countries.
Relations between Sudan and Chad have gradually deteriorated two years after the beginning of Darfur conflict in 2003. Sudanese government reportedly started to support Chadian rebels because they failed to convince Deby to stop weapons and ammunitions delivery to Darfurian rebels belonging to his own influential Zaghawa tribe, Khartoum alleged.
On December 23, 2005, Sudan’s neighbour to the west, declared a ‘state of belligerency’ with Sudan and accused the country of being the “common enemy of the nation (Chad).” This declaration ended an era of the good relations between N’Djamena and Khartoum which backed Deby to overthrow the former Chadian president.
Al-Nur reminded that the Chadian and Sudanese troops fought jointly against the SLA rebels in Ain Siro in 2003. “This joint attack had been decided in a meeting held between Bashir and Deby in Al-Fasher when SLM was the only political organisation fighting for Darfur people rights” he added.
He also said that any attempt to inject the Chadian factor will prolong the suffering of the people of Darfur and complicate the problem. Because according to the rebel chief, this approach will lead to resolve the consequences of the conflict not the causes of the conflict.
“The Darfur conflict is an internal political problem resulted in a huge humanitarian crisis. But the Sudan-Chad crisis is a problem between two allied regimes which instead of dealing properly with their internal problems seek to spread it in the region.” He said.
International experts estimate that Darfur conflict has driven over 300000 Sudanese refugees to eastern Chad from their home in five years of violence.
The former United Nations and the African Union mediators for Darfur peace talks also were attached to idea that Chad had a role to play In Darfur conflict resolution due to its link with some rebel movements.
The Sudanese Presidential Assistant Nafi Ali Nafi told a press conference last week in Paris that Chad has to ameliorate its relations with Sudan first if N’djamena aims at playing any role in the resolution of Darfur conflict.
Nafi further said “We are convinced they can play a positive role particularly with the Justice and Equality Movement.”
(ST)