Council of Ministers endorses new Darfur strategy, rebels reject

President Omar Al Bashir’s council of ministers officially adopted a new strategy for Darfur. The government had already been promoting the strategy for about a month. It had also asked for feedback on the strategy from some foreigners including the American presidential envoy Scott Gration.

The meeting, chaired by President Bashir, agreed to set the government to work on development projects in Darfur. In line with this approach, last month the finance minister announced plans to undertake recovery projects costing $1.9 billion. The strategy also calls for controlling the security situation through the collection of arms and the administration of justice.

In a press statement Thursday following the endorsement of the new strategy, Dr. Ghazi Salah El Din, the presidential advisor in charge of the Darfur file, said that the new strategy supports voluntary repatriation of the internally displaced people to their home areas and their re-integration into economic life.  He also said the strategy aims for partnership with the African Union-United Nations peacekeepers (UNAMID), and with the African Union Panel chaired by former South African president Thabo Mbeki, which has made its own recommendations about Darfur. Mbeki was present at a consultation in Khartoum on 26 August when the strategy was rolled out to the press. At that time Mbeki voiced “strong support” for the strategy.

Armed movements in Darfur reject the new strategy. The Justice and Equality Movement described it as a recipe for war and for military solutions. Dr Jibril Ibrahim, foreign relations secretary of the movement, told Radio Dabanga that the strategy denies the rights of the people of Darfur. He also alleged that the government aims to dismantle the camps and relocate the displaced (IDPs) to new housing in areas around the cities because the IDPs’ villages have been occupied by new settlers.

Likewise, the Liberation and Justice Movement called it a strategy based on the imposition of military solutions, the expulsion of aid organizations and the dismantling of the camps. The spokesman of the movement, Abdullah Mursal, said in an interview aired today on Radio Dabanga that this would only deepen the Darfur problem and add to its complexity. LJM is an umbrella coalition of rebel factions, which is negotiating with the government in Doha under the chairmanship of Dr. Tijani Sese.