‘No Darfur peace agreement to be expected soon’: JEM rebel leader

The chief negotiator of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) for the Darfur peace talks in Addis Ababa has downplayed the probability of reaching an agreement with the Sudanese government soon. The head of the AU-led negotiation team, Thabo Mbeki, will request President Omar Al Bashir to grant his negotiators more powers. JEM leader Ahmed Tugod Lisan told Radio Dabanga that the reason behind the postponement of the current peace talks round last Thursday was the government delegation’s adherence to discussing a ceasefire only. “They rejected to tackle any other issue.” “This prompted the AU High-level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) to adjourn the negotiations for a week. Mbeki will travel to Khartoum on Wednesday to hold talks with President Omar Al Bashir, and ask him to grant his delegation more powers in its negotiations on Darfur,” Lisan explained. “The negotiation round is scheduled to resume next Thursday.” Last Thursday, the JEM leader reported that the government delegation refused to discuss political issues, the situation of the displaced, reconciliations, and other topics. Dr Amin Hassan Omar, head of the government delegation, stressed that these issues have already been addressed in the 2011 Doha Document for Peace in Darfur. “The Addis Ababa negotiations are to be concerned only with reaching a cease-fire and agreeing on the security arrangements”. Berlin The head of the AUHIP team, Thabo Mbeki, flew to Germany this weekend to discuss the course of the negotiations. Since September, Mbeki has held several meetings with German delegations in Addis Ababa over the Sudanese peace processes. Germany is supporting the National Dialogue, as proposed by President Omar Al Bashir earlier this year, and is making efforts to facilitate the settlement of the conflicts in Sudan. Early October, members of the Sudan Revolutionary Front (RSF, an alliance of the main rebel movements) visited Berlin for talks about its position with German officials and a two-day workshop organised by the Berghof Foundation, in cooperation with the German ministry of Foreign Affairs. A month before, Dr Ibrahim Mandour, the chief government negotiator for the peace talks on the Two Areas (Blue Nile and South Kordofan), flew to Germany for discussions on the peace processes and the National Dialogue. File photo: Thabo Mbeki, former South African president, and chairman of the AUHIP negotiation team Related:Sudan’s Al Bashir rejects merging of peace talks, tells Unamid to leave (30 November 2014) Sudan, Darfur rebels fail to agree on peace talk agenda (28 November 2014)Rebels discuss Sudan’s peace talks in Berlin (2 October 2014)