Abdel Wahid: Paris meeting to reorganize Darfur rebel group

Abdel Wahid Al Nur, founder and head of the Sudan Liberation Movement, announced a consultative meeting of the movement to be held in the French capital of Paris and within the Sudan during the next three weeks.The rebel chief said in an interview with Radio Dabanga earlier this week that the goal of this meeting is to reorganize the movement and its structure after the accession of new groups to it recently. Several Arab militias recently defected from the government and declared allegiance to Abdel Wahid.

Given the SLM’s hardline stance against the Doha negotiations, the consultation could also provide Abdel Wahid an opportunity to change tack without losing touch with his field commanders. He said that the meeting would discuss the past peace efforts – Abeche, Abuja and Doha – as well as the future, to map the way forward to a comprehensive and genuine peace based on security first and disarment of the Janjaweed.

The SLM chairman had earlier appealed to the French Foreign Ministry for financial support to help organize the consultation in Paris, selling it as possible starting point for his involvement in the internationally sponsored Doha peace process.

Abdel Wahid also clarified what he meant by ‘Janjaweed’, saying he was not singling out any particular Arab tribe with this word. He said that people from any tribe can be ‘Janjaweed.’ They are individuals who are recruited and armed by the government and who committed what he called the genocide in Darfur. He stressed that the word Janjaweed is not intended to mean a tribe in any way, and pointed out that anybody who takes up arms and fights in the ranks of government, whether they be Fur or Zaghawa or Rizeigat, or any other tribe, is called Janjaweed.