JEM leader says able to impose peace in Sudan’s Darfur
February 13, 209 (DOHA) — Khalil Ibrahim, chairman of the Justice and Equality Movement said that his movement is able to impose peace in Darfur if a peace deal is reached with the Sudanese government.
The rebel leader was speaking to Al-Jazeera TV from Doha where are held preparatory talks between JEM and the Sudanese Government. The website of the satellite TV pledged to broadcast the interview soon.
“If our movement signs (a peace agreement) there will be no war, because the situation is different from the past,” he said, noting that JEM has the power and includes all the people of Darfur form Arabs and non Arabs.
He further added that JEM is not like the other rebel movements, which signed peace deal with the government in the past, but remained unable to implement due to its lack for military strength and popular support.
In May 2006, Minni Minawi and some small splinter factions signed a peace deal with the Sudanese government in Abuja, Nigeria. But, due to its rejection by the other rebel movements the deal failed to bring peace in Darfur and the violence increased in the troubled region.
During the first months following Abuja deal, Khartoum and Minnawi attacked positions of the non signatory rebels and attempted to impose peace by the force but many of the aides and commanders defected from the Senior Presidential Assistant who now expected to break Abuja peace deal.
JEM, which asked for separate talks, now is negotiating a framework agreement and demands the inclusion of confidence building measures in the text.
Ibrahim told Al-Jazeera his movement has demanded the exchange of prisoners of war as an essential part of confidence-building measures, stressing that this demand is not linked to the detention of his brother after a raid on the Sudanese government last May.
Further, JEM chairman denied any link with Hassan Al-Turabi the leader of the Popular Congress Party, describing the Justice and Equality Movement as “an independent movement expressing the interests of Darfur people.
Darfur rebel groups and Minni Minnawi have attacked JEM talks with the Sudanese government saying Doha talks attempt to mend fences between Sudanese Islamists after the indictment of President Omer Al-Bashir.
(ST)