Sudanese government to revoke emergency law in Darfur next year: ex-rebel

September 7, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – The Sudanese government may lift a decade-old emergency law in Darfur next year in line with a peace agreement signed five months ago, said a leading member of the Justice and Equality Movement – Bashar (JEM Bashar) said on Saturday .

Speaking in a TV talk show, Nahar Osman Nahar, JEM-Bashar secretary of presidential affairs, reaffirmed that the peace agreement they inked on 6 April in Doha with the Sudanese government provides to review the state of emergency within a year and to repeal it partially in the areas where there is improvement of the security conditions.

Sudanese president declared the state of emergency in Darfur since 2003 following a rebel attack on the Al-Fasher airport.

The lift of this law, which suspend rights and freedoms, was requested last year to promote an enabling environment before hold civil society consultations over the implementation of the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD) but the government refused.

Also the government said that the state of emergency allows to seal peace agreements with the non-signatory rebels because the president can invoke this law to appoint rebels as governors or in other regional positions after the signing of a peace agreement.

Nahar further said the hold-out rebel groups have no reason to reject the signing of the Doha peace document, stressing that this framework text is not a holy book. Also he pointed that the government should show some flexibility in this respect to encourage them to join it.

However, he stressed that the DDPD covers all the problems related to Darfur region since the independence of Sudan including justice and development issues.

Nahar arrived to Khartoum during the last week on August as part of an advance delegation to prepare the return of the group leadership to Khartoum from the Chadian capital which expected to take place during the upcoming days.

Unconfirmed sources say the Chadian president Idris Deby may personally come with JEM-Bashar leader, Bakheit Abdallah Abdel-Karim (Dabajo), to express his support to the peace deal the group signed with the government.

(ST)