ABUJA, 30 November 2005 — Two Darfur rebel movements spoke with one voice at the launch of a seventh round of peace talks with the Sudanese government yesterday, acting on a pledge to halt infighting that has hampered progress.
The Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), whose two rival leaders agreed just before the talks in the Nigerian capital to put their arguments on hold, and the smaller Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), said they were committed to reaching a just and lasting solution to the Darfur conflict.
“Both movements have reached agreement on a common document in order to achieve as much benefit and success as possible for the people of Darfur,” said Ahmed Tugod, chief negotiator of JEM, on behalf of both rebel groups.
The rebels, the government and the mediators all expressed hope that this seventh round of talks would be decisive and that the rebels’ recent efforts to unify their positions would ease the negotiations. In the previous rounds, each movement spoke separately at the launch ceremony and in closed-door talks. This time, the SLA and JEM delegations will alternate in taking the lead role in talks with government, an SLA leader said.
Tugod’s speech yesterday was noticeably less confrontational toward the government than in earlier rounds, when rebel representatives had aired long lists of accusations against Khartoum.
Abdel Wahed Mohamed El-Nur and Minni Arcua Minnawi, who both claim to be chairman of the SLA, both attended the launch ceremony but did not give speeches. The two men, whose rivalry has torn the SLA apart, agreed last week to paper over their differences for the purposes of the peace talks.
Chief mediator Salim Ahmed Salim of the African Union (AU) called their agreement “a breakthrough,” while Khartoum’s chief negotiator, Majzoub Al-Khalifa, said it represented “remarkable progress.”
Many observers expressed pessimism in the run-up to the seventh round, citing rebel infighting, doubts over how serious the government would be about implementing any agreement, and an increase in violence on the ground over the past two months.
But the AU said newfound harmony in the rebel camp would offset the deteriorating security situation.
In Khartoum, a Darfur rebel faction said it attacked a town in West Darfur state yesterday, killing 37 soldiers and police, to push for its inclusion in peace talks which opened in Abuja.
The Sudanese army confirmed troop movements in the area where the rebels said they carried out their attack but gave no further details. A source in the aid community confirmed an attack on a police station in the town of Sirba and said three policemen had been wounded.
The rebels, the breakaway National Movement for Reform and Development, (NMRD) are not represented at the Abuja talks under African Union (AU) mediation.
