JEM Bashar to return to Khartoum after Ramadan
August 3, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – Former rebel group Justice and Equality Movement-Bashar (JEM-Bashar) said they will travel after the end of Ramadan to the Sudanese capital Khartoum, four months since the signing of a peace agreement.
“We will fly to Khartoum from Ndjamena where we will go after the end of Ramadan”, said Osman Nahar who is now JEM-Bashar secretary of presidential affairs.
He further said they will meet with the Chadian president Idris Deby after the celebration of the end of Ramadan which will take place next week end. Following the meeting, they will head to Khartoum accompanied by Chadian foreign minister and the head of Chadian security service.
JEM Bashar official said they want to thank the president Deby for facilitating the talks between them and the Sudanese government.
The group elected Bakheit Abdallah Abdel-Karim (Dabajo) as new leader, following the killing of Mohamed Bashar and his deputy, Suleiman Arko, by JEM mainstream near the Chadian border on 12 May.
Nahar said their return to Khartoum initially scheduled in June had being delayed by the reorganization of the group and the pursuit of JEM fighters who killed their leader.
Asked if they have initiated contacts with the Liberation and Justice Movement, first signatory of the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD), Nahar said they have no official consultations, but vowed to cooperate with them on the level of the central government and Darfur Regional Authority (DRA) to achieve peace and stability in western Sudan.
Mohamed Eltilib, DRA minster for presidential affairs, said this week they finalized all the necessary arrangements to ensure the participation of JEM-Bashar in the regional authority.
JEM Bashar signed a peace agreement with the Sudanese government on the basis of the DDPD on 6 April in Doha following a three-month process brokered by the joint African Union – United Nations mediation.
The joint chief mediator and UNAMID chief Mohamed Ibn Chambas told the UN Security Council he plans to meet with the non signatory groups this August to re-energize the peace process.
The Council, in a resolution adopted on 30 July, welcomed his efforts saying the rebels are “impeding implementation of the DDPD” and condemned “any actions by any armed group aimed at forced overthrow of the Government of Sudan”.
The two main groups of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) did not take part in the Doha process, but JEM which had inaugurated the process in 2009 demanded to open the framework document for talks but Khartoum rejected their request.
The three groups and the SPLM-N demand a comprehensive and inclusive process to reshape Sudan’s territorial administration in order to give regions large autonomy, and to adopt a secular and democratic constitution in the country.
(ST)