Sudan says did not try to kill West Sudan rebel chief
By Nima Elbagir
KHARTOUM, April 22 (Reuters) – Sudan on Thursday denied claims by rebels from the western Darfur region that the Sudanese army had tried to kill one of their leaders in an ambush.
The Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), a Darfur rebel group, said Secretary-General Minni Arcua Minnawi had escaped the trap on Tuesday a few kilometres (miles) from the Chadian/Sudanese border town of Tine because of a tip-off.
But Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said the report was baseless and he hoped it did not signal a lack of regard for a truce to allow urgent aid into Darfur to relieve what has been called one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.
“These are just accusations. If the government wished to assassinate Minnawi it would not have signed a…deal. I hope these baseless accusations are not a sign of a lack of seriousness on the part of the rebels towards the peace process,” he said in Khartoum.
SLM spokesman Mohammed Mursal said four Sudanese army vehicles fired on a car because they thought Minnawi was inside.
Informants had warned Minnawi of the plan and he took a different route, he added. But a Chadian military officer and his wife were in the car that came under attack and were both killed.
There was no immediate confirmation from Chadian authorities of the death of an officer in an ambush.
The Darfur rebels accuse Khartoum of neglecting the remote, arid area and arming Arab militias to loot and burn African villages. United Nations officials have called the conflict ethnic cleansing.
Formal peace talks are due to start on Saturday in the Chadian capital N’Djamena in the hope of ending the revolt in Darfur, which began in February last year. The two sides agreed a humanitarian ceasefire that came into force on April 11.
Asked how the incident near Tine would affect the talks, Mursal replied: “This doesn’t bode well. It’s obvious the government doesn’t want to negotiate with us.”
The rebels have voiced uncertainty over whether they will attend the talks and accuse Khartoum of violating the truce, which the government denies.
Observers said it was possible the government would try to kill Minnawi, one of the more hardline negotiators and the military leader of the SLM, and replace him with a more malleable partner for the talks.
“Either the government is seeking to supplant Minni with a more malleable replacement who will negotiate on their terms, or this is a manifestation of the internal turmoil within the SLM itself,” said Darfur civil society activist Ahmed Musa.
Analysts say there is infighting in the SLM’s leadership and a power struggle between prominent figures in the armed and political wings.