Doha deal depends on closure of IDPs camps in Darfur – Sissi
December 6, 2011 (KHARTOUM) — Tijani el-Sissi, chairman of Darfur Regional Authority (DRA) said today in Khartoum that peace in Darfur depends on the return of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and refugees to their place of origin or choice and closure of IDPs camps in Darfur.
The DDPD provides to pay compensations to the IDPs and refugees and to facilitate voluntary return to their villages of origin or any other place they choose. The government is also committed, in accordance to the document, to establish the security, political and economic conditions to ensure the return.
In a briefing to the Council of States, the upper house, Sissi pointed out that it is important to create the necessary conditions to ensure the freedom of IDPs and refugees to return to their homes or to settle at any place of their choice.
“The success of the Doha agreement depends on the closure of the (IDPs) camps voluntarily,” said the DRA chief. He stressed that the return also depends on the serious cooperation between the regional authority and the federal government.
The DRA is tasked with the implementation of the DDPD.
Sissi also underscored the need to stop violence and to disarm militias and other groups. “We have to collect weapons and to limit it only to the official agencies,” he emphasized
After a meeting he held yesterday with the Chadian president Idris Deby, Sissi disclosed his intention to travel soon to Ndjamena to discuss the return of Sudanese refugees from in eastern Chad. There are some 400 thousand Sudanese refugees according to the aid groups.
The DRA chairman told the lawmakers that the regional authority will include all the ethnic groups in a way to reflect the different components of Darfur. He added they will keep seeking to persuade all the other groups to join the DDPD.
He further said willing to resign from his position as chairman of the regional authority to the leader of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) Khalil Ibrahim in order to achieve peace and security in Darfur.
Sissi who attended Washington workshop on Darfur last month, said negative foreign interferences in the past affected the plight of Darfur. He added that regional and international communities are supportive to the Doha peace framework, but he warned that the current momentum depends on the success of DDPD implementation.
Through today’s statements, Sissi for the first time makes the issue of IDPs and refugees his main concern during the interim period. However Khartoum seems currently unable to honour its financial commitments due to the tough economic crisis hitting the country.
On the other side, the international stakeholders despite their announced support to the DDPD seem more busy by including the other rebel groups in the Doha process than supporting the implementation of the agreement.
The United Nations and the African Union are now working on a road map aiming to improve the coordination between the two bodies in their efforts to achieve peace in Darfur.
While the AU supports Mbeki plan to hold an internal dialogue process, the major international actors prefer to dedicate their time to find a way forwards on how to reconcile JEM and the two factions of the Sudan Liberation Movement with the DDPD.
(ST)