Darfur SLM holds consultative meeting in Switzerland
January 5, 2009 (LONDON) — Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) organized a consultative meeting in Switzerland attended by over fifty delegates from Darfur and other parts of the country to discuss the peace process and adopted a series of resolutions.
Organized in undisclosed site in Switzerland from 14 to December 24, representatives of the SLM discussed the current situation in the country, strategy of the movement to achieve peace in Darfur and the establishment of a secular and democratic system in a united Sudan.
Since last September many countries expressed support to the ongoing efforts to organize new peace talks sponsored by Qatar to end the six year conflict in Darfur. The meeting facilitated by the Swiss government aims to bring together the SLM cadres with its leader Abdel Wahid Al-Nur who is in France since 2006 in order to determine the position of the movement towards this initiative.
SLM spokesperson, Yahia Al-Bashir Bolad said that the 10 day meeting also reviewed the political situation in the movement since its creation and special attention had been paid to the dissidences that occurred since Haskanita conference of Minni Minawi in November 2005. Also delegates of mass organizations, women and students presented papers and deliberated on political and organizational reports.
The meeting stressed that the achievement of peace remains a strategic choice for the movement. The delegates further reiterated the need to provide security to displaced people in Darfur, to stop the killing of civilians and rape of women. The disarmament of Janjaweed militias and the expulsion of new settlers from the territory of the people of Darfur are also indispensible before to engage talks with the government, the agreed.
Bolad said that the “conflict suspension” that should precede the talks will provide the opportunity to discuss during the peace negotiations the roots of the conflict and the ways to avoid its repetition in the future by working to build a state based on equal citizenship in the country.
“We want that peace process will allow to adopt a system of government that permits the achievement of political and social justice among the people of Sudan in the various regions,” he added.
Bolad underscored that the meeting provided the opportunity to express the unity of the movement and its support to its historical founder and leader Abdel-Wahid Al-Nur who lives in exile in France since two years.
The meeting also discussed the challenges ahead in the future, added the spokesperson.
The meeting also underlined the group’s adherence to building a democratic, liberal and secular system. He appealed to the masses of the Sudanese people and the various political forces to support the SLM agendas. He also disclosed that the SLM is resolved to hold a series of meetings and contacts with the political forces to reach a common ground for the achievement of peace and democracy in the Sudan.
The spokesman thanked the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and particularly Dr Gunther Baechler, Senior Adviser for Peace Building in Darfur. He added that the hosting of the meeting came as part of a policy of neutrality and support for efforts to bring peace in Darfur of the Swiss government. He also thanked a number of friendly countries that had contributed to the success of this meeting, the largest outside Sudan.
Al-Nur has been refusing to take part in any peace talks unless security is enforced in Darfur, Janjaweed militias disarmed and halt to military activities by Khartoum.
(ST)