Darfur mediators promoting possible deal with LJM

The chief mediators of the Darfur conflict are traveling to promote a possible peace deal between the Sudanese government and the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM). The mediators want to hold consultations with officials, civil society, and refugees, testing the waters for a planned deal on 19 December. The peace deal would mark the culmination of nine months of negotiations and delays that followed a framework deal last February. The Qatari mediator of the Darfur conflict, Ahmed Bin Abdullah Al Mahmoud, is set to fly to Khartoum on Friday, along with the joint mediator for the African Union and United Nations, Djibril Bassole. Their visit to Sudan will last seven days. LJM is an umbrella group of rebel factions that formed after internationally-facilitated consultations in 2009 and early 2010. The coalition is headed by an ethnic Fur, Dr. Tijani Sese, who has never been involved in the rebellion in the field. In recent years he has worked for the United Nations in Addis Ababa. Although LJM is sometimes described as militarily insignificant, it does field some troops including, notably, the United Resistance Front led by Bahar Idriss Abu Garda. In a recent interview with Radio Dabanga, Abdullah Mursal, spokesman for the movement, said that the rebel group has concerns about the mediators’ upcoming consultations. He said that the civil society representatives chosen to meet the mediation team are supporters and loyalists of the government, selected by it to meet the mediators. Mursal said LJM informed the mediation that they should meet true representatives of Darfuri civil society. Key issues remain disputed in the negotiations between LJM and the government. Mursal said that the main ones are the rebels’ demands for unifying the three Darfur states into one territory, international justice, and the appointment of a vice president from for Darfur. The government has reportedly refused the mediation’s proposed compromise. Ahead of the mediators’ visit, some displaced people said that they expect the visit to be a mere formality that will not solve the problem. The consultations will not lead to peace as long as there are armed movements outside the Doha Platform, they said. The sources were referring to JEM and SLA-AW – hard-line factions which, unless the mediators achieve a breakthrough, will oppose any peace with the government. The mediators face the choice either to proceed with a non-comprehensive peace deal, or to delay the signing ceremony with LJM yet again. One of the leaders of the displaced population told Radio Dabanga from the camps of El Fasher that the consultations to be held will be probably with government loyalists, because real civil society representatives would be harassed or arrested, as happens after any meeting with international officials in the region. Following the mediation’s timetable, the final peace agreement would be drafted between 7 December and 13 December, followed by a meeting of ministers of the Arab Ministerial Committee, and another for the special envoys of the States who are Permanent Members of the Security Council and the European Union envoy for Sudan. The date set for the final signing will be during the period from 14-19 December. Mursal told Radio Dabanga, however, that the LJM will not be bound by any time limit to negotiate, and stressed the need for a just and comprehensive solution to the demands of the people of Darfur. One opposition politician, Dr. Ismail Hussein, warned the Qatari mediation against the consequences of repeating the Abuja process, which he said would not lead to peace and stability in the region. Hussein, who leads the opposition in the Sudanese parliament, said the mediation’s timetable could repeat the experience of Abuja in 2006, when only Minni Minawi’s movement signed. He posed the question whether the mediators want to repeat such a farce.