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| Africa: East |
| Sudanese say no cease-fire in Darfur |
| 2003-12-30 |
| The Sudan Liberation Movement demanded that a ceasefire agreement, under negotiation during collapsed peace talks last November, be observed by a neutral country. The Sudanese dictatorship rejected the idea of a ceasefire on Sunday, dismissing the demand and others as "unrealistic". The state-run Sudan News agency (SUNA) disclosed that the SLM demanded the cease-fire agreement be observed by a neutral country, under the auspices of the Federal States of Nigeria, the European Union and the Arab League group. No mention was made of the African Union. SLM demands also called for the dictatorship to recognize the SLM as the sole representative of the people of Sudan’s Darfur region and the hand-over of the military garrison of western Sudan to the rebels. The Sudanese dictatorship’s army announced Saturday that its troops had been attacked twice by the rebels in Darfur within 24 hours. Following intensive rebel operations the government dissolved the local cabinet of Darfur as the opposition to the dictatorship in Darfur had even reached to the hand picked members of the state government. Darfur is Sudan’s largest state making up roughly one third of the total area of Sudan which is itself Africa’s largest state. About half the terroritory of Sudan is under uprising and armed resistance to the dictatorship, including most of the south and west of Sudan as well as sporadic uprisings and rebellions in the east. Sudan has Africa’s longest running conflict, with the latest round of war against the Arab dictatorship having started in 1983. Over the past 20 years of conflict some six million civilians have lost their lives. The dictatorship is currenty in peace negotiations with the main rebel group from the south, the SPLA, with talks taking place in Kenya under American pressure. President George W. Bush has indicated in a telephone call to the Sudanese military dictator Omar Hassan Ahmed Al Bashir and the SPLA leader Colonel John Garang, that the American President would like the peace treaty to be signed in Washington. A deadline for December 31 had been set, but is now likely to be moved to early 2004. The peace talks do not involve the Sudanese people, civil society nor any of the many other rebel groups around the country such as JEM and SLM in Darfur and a host of rebel movements in southern Sudan. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |