Darfur breakaway faction reunites with the rebel SLM-Nur

May 10, 2011 (KHARTOUM) — A breakaway rebel faction announced yesterday it has reintegrated the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) led by Abdel Wahid Al-Nur and called on the other dissident groups to reunite under one banner.

The Sudan Liberation Movement –Juba Unity reunited with the SLM under the leadership of its founder Abdel Wahid Al-Nur, said Al-Hadi Idriss Yahya, the political secretary of Juba faction. He further said they took this decision as result of a long dialogue engaged since June 2010.

The SLM-Juba Unity is established in November 2007 following an initiative by South Sudan ruling party, SPLM, to reunite the rebel factions before to engage direct talks with the central government. At the time the group was formed from six SLM factions besides JEM- Field revolutionary Command, the Democratic Popular Front and Sudanese Revolutionary Front.

The group was approached to join the Doha process and after a long vacillation, its leader Ahmed Abdel Shafi announced on 27 April 2010 his merger with the Liberation and Equality Movement (LJM) led by El-Tijani El-Sissi, but the rest of the group disapproved the move.

Al-Hadi said they discussed the solution of Darfur cause and agreed that the eight year conflict is “a national problem can only be resolved in a national framework” by overthrowing the National Congress Party regime in order to pave the way towards complete regime change in Sudan and build a state of citizenship.

“We also emphasized that partial solutions and bilateral agreements obstruct the solution of the conflict more than resolve it. In this respect, we renewed (our) fundamental stance rejecting the Doha process under its current form, and the Movement is not concerned by its outcome,” he stressed.

The SLM-AW is not part of the ongoing process in Doha where the Liberation and Equality Movement (LJM) of El-Sissi and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) are negotiating with the Sudanese government for a political solution to the conflict.

The SLM leader met last year with the Qatari state minister for foreign affairs in Paris an pledged to join the peace process however, he stressed the need to stop violence on civilians in Darfur and also he said the group should discuss on the participation in the Doha talks and take a decision in this regard.

Since he left Paris, and reorganized the group. The SLM supporters organized last April a series of protests inside the countries in different Sudanese provinces besides Darfur a to overthrow Bashir’s regime and appealing the Sudanese opposition political parties to join them for a regime change.

SLM-AW political secretary Hafiz Hamouda told Sudan Tribune that the Movement has effectively began discussions with different political and military forces in the country in implementation of the new political line announced by its leader Abdel Wahid Al-Nur.

He further said they are about to reach political agreement with some political forces during the next few days.

Al-Hadi told Sudan Tribune separately that talks are taking place with the different factions of the Sudan Liberation Movement to rebuild the group as it was before November 2005, date of the first dissidence in the movement by Minni Minnawi who signed a peace agreement with the Sudanese government in May 2006 before to return rebel last year.

In Doha the mediation is planning to hold a general conference on Darfur this month with the participation of the internally displaced persons, civil society groups and tribal leaders. However talks between Khartoum and JEM rebels are stalled over different issues particularly the administrative status of Darfur and security arrangements.

The Sudanese government, on the other side, intends to hold next July a referendum on Darfur administrative make-up and a dialogue conference with the participation of civil society and tribal leaders to settle the conflict internally.

(ST)