Western Sudan rebels say not going to peace talks
By Nima Elbagir
DARFUR, Sudan, April 16 (Reuters) – Rebels in western Sudan said on Friday they would not go to peace talks to stop fighting in the region because the government was continuing attacks despite a truce.
The Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) launched a revolt in Darfur last year, accusing Khartoum of neglecting the poor area and arming Arab militias to loot and burn African villages, a charge the government denies.
“We have released a joint statement with the Justice and Equality Movement that we will not be attending the ceasefire talks in Addis Ababa or the political talks in N’djamena (capital of Chad),” SLM/A spokesman Musa Hamid al-Doa said.
On Thursday, the SLM/A said it would not go to the Chad talks starting April 24 and JEM expressed doubt it would attend. JEM was not immediately available for comment on Friday.
Separate African Union talks are proceeding in Addis Ababa to arrange a monitoring commission to observe the shaky truce between the government and the two groups which came into effect on Sunday.
In Geneva, U.N. officials said a team of human rights experts sent to investigate charges of “ethnic cleansing” around Darfur had ended their mission without getting permission to visit the troubled region.
The United Nations says Darfur is one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters, with hundreds of thousands forced to flee into neighbouring Chad to escape the marauding militias.
Al-Doa told Reuters said attacks by Arab militias, called Janjaweed, had continued and in recent days government forces had also carried out military operations despite the ceasefire.
The government has denied carrying out any such operations.
“The guarantees that we are being given about the ceasefire are insufficient,” al-Doa said by telephone from Khartoum.
“It’s not just the Janjaweed, it is full-scale now. There is aerial bombardment and there are government forces involved.”
Al-Doa said government forces had attacked late on Thursday a JEM garrison near Geneina in Western Darfur state, 1,100 km (680 miles) west of Khartoum. He gave no further details.
He said a SLM/A deadline to the government to stop attacks in the area, due to expire early on Saturday, was still in force. If the government fails to stop attacks, the SLM/A will not abide by the truce.
Earlier this month, U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs Jan Egeland said that what was happening in and around Darfur was “ethnic cleansing” and urged the international community to put pressure on the Sudanese government to intervene to halt the activities of the militias.
Despite being unable to travel to Darfur, the U.N. investigators talked to refugees and officials in Chad and will make a report on the situation, U.N. human rights spokesman Jose Diaz said.
(Additional reporting by Richard Waddington in Geneva)