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Sudan and JEM rebels to start talks for peace in Darfur on Tuesday

March 8, 2010 (DOHA) – The Sudanese government and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) will start direct peace talks to end the seven year conflict in Doha, for the first time since the signing of the Doha framework agreement on February 23, a top rebel negotiator told Sudan Tribune.

The deal secretly negotiated in Ndjamena and signed last month in Doha by the two warring parties includes a ceasefire agreement, the release of JEM members detained in Khartoum, and the commitment to sign a final peace agreement before March 15 as well as political partnership between the two signatories.

Another related development occurred the same day, February 23, when two rebel groups (SLM-RF and Addis Ababa group) supported by Libya and the US envoy for Sudan declared their merger as the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM) and said they are ready for separate talks with the Sudanese government. The two rebel groups refuse to merge with JEM saying they accept only coordination.

But JEM refused to join at the negotiating table saying that LJM ought not to hold separate, simultaneous and parallel talks with Khartoum. JEM was against allowing them to be involved in discussions with the government as separate group. The powerful rebel movement says they want one sole rebel delegation in the talks, requesting the newly formed rebel umbrella to merge with them.

However, Ahmed Tugud, JEM chief negotiator, told Sudan Tribune on Monday they agreed with the mediation to start the direct peace talks with the Sudanese government on Tuesday, ending the two weeks of deadlock.

Since they agreed to sign the deal on March 15, the mediation should stop preparations for another framework agreement with the LJM led by El-Tijani El-Sissi, he further added.

In the context of the JEM-government talks, Tugud also stressed that different commissions will hold meetings at the same time on different topics detailed in the framework agreement.

He also said they agreed with the mediation that LJM could join the process at a stage to be determined later. He stressed they still refuse coordination between the movements on the rebel side during the talks adding unity would facilitate the negotiations and allow the Darfurian people to have a strong stance.

Previously the LJM groups said they accept only coordination with JEM – not unity – and the talks between the groups and JEM, who have been in Doha since January 24, stalled for about four weeks until the signing of the framework agreement negotiated in Ndjamena.

The JEM negotiator said the Movement fears a repetition of the Abuja deal which they rejected jointly with SLM led by Abdel Wahid Al-Nur while Minni Minnawi inked it with the Sudanese government on May 5, 2006. Also Khalil Ibrahim, JEM leader, stigmatized the representation of the new group saying they had been imposed just to spoil the peace process.

Ibrahim also said if the LJM does not want to merge with them, then they can hold talks with Khartoum in another country or they have to wait till the signing of the peace deal between the government and JEM.

Asked whether they can finalize a peace deal within a week as is stipulated in the framework agreement, Tugud said he was uncertain about the signing of a peace accord by March 15.

“It would be practically very difficult to respect the date fixed in the framework agreement,” he said.

(ST)