More than 400 Darfur civil society delegates head to Doha

More than four hundred representatives of Darfuri civil society headed to Doha yesterday from El Fasher and Nyala airports. They will participate in the third Doha Forum, which is scheduled to begin on Friday in Doha with the participation of displaced people, refugees and different classes of Darfuris. One of the female leaders of the civil society groups in the Doha forum, Zuhra Abdul Munaim, said that around 70 representatives from North Darfur will participate in the conference, including 36 displaced people and 34 from the other groups in North Darfur.

She told Radio Dabanga that the groups are opposed to the prospect of one rebel faction signing a peace agreement in Doha, rather than a comprehensive solution involving multiple parties. She warned against repeating the experience of the Abuja talks, and she also added that they are standing by a comprehensive agreement for all the armed factions in Darfur and revealed that they, as women, will demand a special protocol for women in the coming peace document.

In eastern Chad, around 24 refugees headed to Doha to represent 12 refugee camps for Sudanese in Eastern Chad. They were met yesterday in the Chadian city of Abeche by representatives of the chief mediator in the presence of the representative of the Chadian High Commission. Dahiya Idriss Khamis, the chairman of Bergen camp and a member of the delegation said that the demands which will be laid in Doha included refusing to sign any partial peace agreement in Doha, uniting of the rebel factions and bringing security to Darfur. The demands also included disarming militias loyal to the government, trying the war criminals of Darfur, victim compensation, and removing new settlers from their lands. The demands have been classified by the representatives as fundamental ones which are to be guaranteed, or else they will withdraw from the Doha conference.

In Khartoum, Farouq Abu Issa, a leading figure in the National Allied Forces, said that the secretary-general of the Communist Party, Mohammed Ibrahim Nugud, Dr.  Al Turabi, the head of the Popular Congress Party, Yasser Arman, the secretary-general of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement of the north and Nasr Eldin El Hadi who is the representative of Sadiq Al Mahdi, the head of the Umma Party, received invitations from the mediator and will all participate in the conference.

Farouq expressed his fear that the National Congress Party would stop at nothing and that the Doha talks could lead to ‘another Abuja’,  in light of possibilities of one of the factions signing on the document. Farouq’s alliance of parties includes those that held consultation meetings in Khartoum and agreed that the draft peace document would lead to a partial peace only.

In Kampala, Abdul Wahid Mohammed Ahmed Nour, the founder and chairman of the Sudan’s Liberation Movement (SLM) said that peace in Darfur will not be achieved without security in Darfur and if the ongoing genocide and airstrikes on civilians are not stopped and the government-supported militias are not disarmed and the new settlers not be taken out of the land of the people of Darfur and their properties and the refugees and displaced people compensated. Abdul Wahid directed a question to the participants of the Doha Conference for civil society groups which is set to be held on Friday. He asked them the status of the Abuja Agreement now, stating that a peace should be signed with all the armed parties and if that does not happened, there will be no peace in Darfur as there will a side carrying guns and fighting. Abdul Wahid urged all the people of Darfur to not be tricked by the games and plays of the National Congress Party, which he said will fall soon and be removed from power.