Deep divisions in Darfur over choice of delegates to Doha conference

Darfuri activists revealed that there are deep differences in all three states of Darfur on choosing delegates to the Civil Society Conference in Doha which is to be held after tomorrow, on Friday. They also stated that the governors of the three states have interfered to impose names of non-existing representatives. A leading Darfuri figure, Professor Abdel Rahman Dossa, said that he was not confident that the conference would have delegates truly representative of the displaced people, refugees and civil society organizations. He noted that past civil society mechanisms (Heidelberg, Dar El Salam and Soba) resulted in statements of opinion on the peace document. He urged the mediators and the factions to consider the opinions of the civil society organizations.

In El Fasher, displaced people in Zamzam camp, the biggest camp in North Darfur, said that the government used the security bureau to select six people as representatives of the displaced people in old and new Zamzam camps, three from each, to participate in the Doha Forum. The displaced people confirmed that the chosen names were not names of displaced people and that the displaced themselves have no connection with the named delegates. They described what was done as ‘robbery’. One of the activists in the camp told Radio Dabanga that they have not chosen a single displaced person to represent them in Doha.