ABUJA, 24 December 2005 — The rebel Sudan Liberation Movement and Army yesterday in Abuja condemned killings which he said occurred this week in the Darfur region. Esam El-Hadj, spokesman of the rebel group, told Deutsche Presse-Agendum that 52 people were killed by Janjaweed militias in Abu Sorouj village, 60 kilometers southeast of Genina, in western Darfur, and an equal number left wounded. He also alleged that almost 100 people were killed in other parts of Darfur earlier in the week.
Since the seventh round of peace talks on the Darfur conflict opened in the Nigerian capital Abuja on Nov. 21, Janjaweed militias, backed by Khartoum and the government of Sudan, have attacked Labado and Alas Marla, northern Darfur, twice, El-Hadj said. The two areas have 7,000 internally displaced people and 175 have been killed, most of them women and children, he claimed.
The rebel spokesman also alleged that the Sudan government is exporting the conflict in Darfur to neighboring countries by training Chadian renegades and deserters to wage war against the legitimate government of Chad. “Such moves would worsen the situation of Sudanese refugees in Chad,” he said.
The spokesman said the rebel groups in Darfur need the assistance of the international community to mount pressure on Khartoum to make the ongoing seventh round of peace talks the final one so that peace can return to western Sudan without further delay.
“It is very clear to us that the Sudan government delegation at the Abuja peace talks does not want the issue of security in Darfur to be discussed outside Khartoum since it is determined to continue to violate the cease-fire agreement signed in N’djamena in April 2004,” he said.
El-Hadj said the rebel groups want Darfur recognized as a region within Sudan and that the country’s vice presidency should be filled by a Darfur native “so that whatever decision is to be taken on Darfur from Khartoum, we will have a representative at the highest level to contribute to decision-making.”
