Darfuri group says opposed to foreign interference in conflict

September 8, 2009 (KHARTOUM) — A group of Darfuri figures announced from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa today the establishment of a new advocacy group with the goal of opposing foreign intervention in the six year conflict in the troubled province in Western Sudan.

The news drew an unusual extensive coverage by the Sudan official news agency (SUNA) and the Sudanese Media Center (SMC) website widely considered to be run by National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS).

The National Group for Correcting the Trak of Darfur Crisis (NGCTDC) as it was named by its founders is chaired by Suleiman Ahmed Hamed, a former leading member of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM)-Unity and head of Zaghawa community in Europe.

Sudan state media said that the co-founders also include Salah Al-Deen Mohamed Mansur a translator with a group that is part of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Abdel-Rahman Saleh Yusuf a “main witness” for 2003 events in Darfur used by the ICC and International Justice Group, Ismail Mohamed Yusuf a “main witness” for Shataya incidents, Arbab Ishag Ali another witness, Sharif Siyam Adam a witness of the 2004 events, Abu Al-Gassim Zakariya, a translator for Human Rights Watch (HRW).

In a founding declaration released today, the NGCTDC said it is not a rebel faction or a political party but an awareness and advocacy group seeking to campaign for a national solution to Darfur crisis without foreign interferences.

“Disagreement with the government in Khartoum, should not lead us to drag the Sudan into [disorder and division] and transform it to another former Yugoslavia or to the current situation in Iraq,” said Mr. Kamal Al-Deen Ibrahim, the Secretary General of the group.

“The group will also seek to identify the objectives of those who attempt to distort the image of Sudan,” he added.

Ibrahim also was presented as former member of the rebel SLM and an economist.

The group said it aims to achieve goals such as opening the door for national reconciliation in Darfur and resolve the differences through the popular and national laws that already exist in Sudan.

The NGCTDC will press for prosecuting crimes and appeal to the African Union (AU) to investigate the crimes committed in Darfur, said Ibrahim.

The translators and witnesses said they were lured by international organizations to exaggerate the numbers of victims and killings that occurred in the region.

The group said that many foreign organizations are “manipulating” the Darfur crisis for its own agenda.

The Sudanese ambassador to the UN Abdel-Haleem Abdel-Mahmood was quoted by SUNA as lauding the formation of the group saying it “exposed the methods and techniques used to criminalize Sudan”.

Darfur peace mediator Djibril Bassole said yesterday he would convene a consultation for Darfur civil society groups next month in Doha, before to hold peace talks between the government and the rebel groups at the end of October.

(ST)