‘Washington workshop, a success’

DRA president Tijani Sese says the overwhelming opinion at the workshop was in favor of Doha peace processTijani Sese, president of the Darfur Regional Authority (DRA), said on Thursday that the workshop in Washington with several other armed opposition groups had concluded successfully.Sese, who also heads the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM), which signed the Doha Peace Agreement (DPA) with the Sudanese government in July 2011, told Radio Dabanga that he believed the major opinion at the workshop was in favor of Doha peace agreement.He added that many people including American administrators, special envoys, members of the international community and Darfuris had attended the three-day symposium.“The workshop gave us an opportunity to put forth our opinion. We need to strengthen the Doha peace process and convince the armed movements which haven’t signed it to join in,” he said.The workshop at the Institute of Peace in Washington was held by the US administration and it involved the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Army-Minni Minnawi (SLA-MM).Sese also said that consultations were underway between the LJM and the Sudanese government to form the DRA and that it would soon be declared.SLA-MM: No decision reachedMeanwhile, Minni Arko Minnawi, president of the SLA-MM lauded the workshop and said it was “good.”In a phone interview with Radio Dabanga from Washington, Minni Minnawi said, “There were no final decisions or recommendations made. It was a workshop to form an opinion in the direction of finding a solution to the conflict in Darfur. The SPLM-N, SLA-MM and the JEM focused on the need to find comprehensive solutions to the issues of Sudan.”He added that they didn’t want partial solutions to the problems which have already proved to be a failure in changing the system. Minni Minnawi also maintained that he still considered the Doha document to be incomplete and not comprehensive.