Sudan’s First Vice-President calls for peace in Darfur
Sudan’s First Vice-President, Gen. Bakri Hassan Saleh, has called upon the armed rebel movements in Darfur to lay down their arms, and catch up with the peace process. “It is high time for Darfur to enjoy peace,” he declared during his visit to North Darfur’s capital El Fasher on Saturday on the occasion of the celebration of the National Day of Peace. Sultan Saad Bahreldin, the chairman of the Popular Initiative for Peace in Darfur, handed Saleh a document calling for unity, and support for the 2011 Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD) being “the only road leading to stability and sustainable peace”. The Vice-President promised the implementation of the DDPD and all the requirements listed in the Popular Initiative’s document, “so that Darfur will return as it used to be in the past”. Insult However, the Sudan Liberation Movement for Justice, led by El Taher Hajar, described Saleh’s call to Radio Dabanga as “deception”. “The murders, rapes, lootings, and arson in Darfur and Kordofan, carried out by the paramilitary Rapid Support militia of the security apparatus are ample proof of that,” Hajar stressed. “The Khartoum regime will never be honest and does not want peace. It has never been committed to the peace agreements it signed with rebel movements, be it in Naivasha or Doha.” Hajar described the National Day of Peace as an “insult and humiliation for the people of Darfur in general, and the victims of the war in particular”. Dustbin For his part, Abdallah Mursal, the spokesman for the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Minni Minawi, described the Vice-President’s speech as “empty aspirations”. “We cannot afford to pay the bill for a surgery operation on the dying Khartoum regime.” Mursal wondered “where this peace is to be celebrated”. “What is currently going on in Darfur is worse than it was in the first years of the war, 2003-2004. The DDPD is dead, as any Darfuri can testify. We are calling upon the Sudanese to unite and sweep the ruling National Congress Party into the dustbin of history.” File photo: First Vice-President, Gen. Bakri Hassan Saleh (Suna)Related: Sudan Peace Day in North Darfur raises questions amongst displaced (30 May 2014)
Sudan’s First Vice-President, Gen. Bakri Hassan Saleh, has called upon the armed rebel movements in Darfur to lay down their arms, and catch up with the peace process.
“It is high time for Darfur to enjoy peace,” he declared during his visit to North Darfur’s capital El Fasher on Saturday on the occasion of the celebration of the National Day of Peace. Sultan Saad Bahreldin, the chairman of the Popular Initiative for Peace in Darfur, handed Saleh a document calling for unity, and support for the 2011 Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD) being “the only road leading to stability and sustainable peace”.
The Vice-President promised the implementation of the DDPD and all the requirements listed in the Popular Initiative’s document, “so that Darfur will return as it used to be in the past”.
Insult
However, the Sudan Liberation Movement for Justice, led by El Taher Hajar, described Saleh’s call to Radio Dabanga as “deception”. “The murders, rapes, lootings, and arson in Darfur and Kordofan, carried out by the paramilitary Rapid Support militia of the security apparatus are ample proof of that,” Hajar stressed.
“The Khartoum regime will never be honest and does not want peace. It has never been committed to the peace agreements it signed with rebel movements, be it in Naivasha or Doha.” Hajar described the National Day of Peace as an “insult and humiliation for the people of Darfur in general, and the victims of the war in particular”.
Dustbin
For his part, Abdallah Mursal, the spokesman for the Sudan Liberation Movement led by Minni Minawi, described the Vice-President’s speech as “empty aspirations”. “We cannot afford to pay the bill for a surgery operation on the dying Khartoum regime.”
Mursal wondered “where this peace is to be celebrated”. “What is currently going on in Darfur is worse than it was in the first years of the war, 2003-2004. The DDPD is dead, as any Darfuri can testify. We are calling upon the Sudanese to unite and sweep the ruling National Congress Party into the dustbin of history.”
File photo: First Vice-President, Gen. Bakri Hassan Saleh (Suna)
Related: Sudan Peace Day in North Darfur raises questions amongst displaced (30 May 2014)