Sudanese rebel leaders deny abducting journalists in Darfur
ABUJA, Sept 11 (AFP) — Rebel leaders from Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region on Saturday rejected allegations by a Khartoum-based journalists’ association that they were holding four reporters as hostage.
“We are in touch with our troops and commanders, and they have denied any knowledge of the incident. No journalist is in our custody. It is all lies and part of the propaganda of the Sudanese government,” Abduljabbar Dofa, a spokesman for the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), told AFP.
He was reacting to a call on Friday by the Sudanese Journalists’ Union for the release of four colleagues employed by a local television station they say were being held by Darfur rebels.
The crew, employed by the state-owned television station in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur, is believed to have been abducted some 18 days ago while returning from covering a conference in Adeelah, south of Nyala.
Union Secretary General Al-Fatih Al-Sayyed told AFP that his organization had contacted regional and international media watchdogs and rights groups as part of a campaign to win the release of the four men.
He also called on the African Union and the International Committee of the Red Cross to press the rebels to free the four journalists, identified as Hussein Sheikh Eddin, Madhi Gharib, Suleiman Sharoufa and Abdul Rahman Ajina.
The Sudanese government has in recent months accused the rebels of carrying out a series of abductions in the region, particularly of local and international humanitarian aid workers.
Some of them have been released and others not yet accounted for.
The two main rebels groups, the SLM and the Justice and Equality movement, which began an uprising against the government in February 2003, often deny responsibility of the abductions.
Between 30,000 and 50,000 people have died in the conflict that has displaced some 1.4 million and forced an estimated 180,000 to flee into neighboring Chad, according to the UN.
AU-sponsored peace talks between the Sudanese government and the two rebel groups taking place in the Nigerian capital have yet to make much progress because of disagreements on disarmament and security issues.
The talks were suspended on Friday and will resume on Tuesday to enable Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo as AU chairman and host to intervene.