SLM chief in talks with French ministry and UN mediator over Darfur

Abdel Wahid Mohamed Ahmed Al Nur held talks in Paris with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and the UN-African Union mediator for the peace process for Darfur, Djibril Bassole. Abdel Wahid is the Paris-based leader of the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army.

The talks focused on the peace process in Darfur, according to Abdel Wahid, who said that the two meetings so far were constructive. He told Radio Dabanga that he put forward demands for providing security in Darfur as a precondition to negotiations with the government.

The SLM chief has refused since May 2006 to participate in any peace negotiations with the Sudanese government. This is the first serious indication of his potential willingness to negotiate since consultations in Paris in July with Kouchner, Bassole and Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Mahmood, the state minister for foreign affairs of Qatar. After those meetings, the French foreign minister stated on 9 July that Abdel Wahid had given “total support to the negotiating process on peace in Darfur taking place in Doha under the Qatari Government’s auspices.” In the subsequent months, however, it was less than clear that the movement would negotiate, because of ongoing fighting with government forces in central Darfur.