Paris meeting: Abdel Wahid steps cautiously toward negotiating table

The exiled rebel chief Abdel Wahid Al Nur met last Thursday in Paris with the chief mediator of the Darfur conflict and the state minister for foreign minister of Qatar, Ahmed bin Abdullah Al-Mahmood. The rebel leader, who lives in Paris, is the chairman of the original Sudan Liberation Movement. He has refused since May 2006 to participate in any peace negotiations with the Sudanese government, demanding that first the government improve security in Darfur, disarm the Janjaweed militias, expel settlers from lands taken from displaced citizens of Darfur, and deliver relief supplies in the IDP camps as well as remote areas of the region.This meeting in Paris, however, indicates that the rebel leader may be ready to enter the current Qatari-sponsored peace talks. Abdel Wahid, in an interview with Radio Dabanga, described his meeting with Al Mahmoud and Bassole as an opportunity for the participants to explain how they thought peace should be achieved in Darfur. He said that the two sides agreed to continue consultations.

According to Abdel Wahid, the only new outcome of the meeting is the agreement to continue consultations with mediators. He clarified to Radio Dabanga that the movement is not yet a party to the Doha negotiations. He said that he requested that the Qatari minister pressure the Sudanese governmnet to achieve security in Darfur and disarm the janjaweed, if they are indeed serious about comprehensive peace. He added that if the Qataris do that then he would be ready to go to Doha to negotiate with the Khartoum government.

Seen in another light, however, the rebel leader has now offered “total support to the negotiating process on peace in Darfur taking place in Doha under the Qatari Government’s auspices,” the French foreign minister stated on Friday. Minister Bernard Kouchner, who himself met with the rebel chief Thursday, described Abdel Wahid’s position in dramatic terms. He explained that the SLM leader’s “new position” is the result of months of talks organized at the French foreign ministry. “I am very pleased that he has at last decided to give peace a chance,” Kouchner commented, adding “this success also crowns the action” of the mediators Al-Mahmoud and Bassolé.

The Sudan Liberation Movement of Abdel Wahid, if it moves to the negotiating table at Doha, would participate alongside other rebel factions grouped into a loose coalition, the Liberation and Justice Movement. It is not yet clear whether SLM would join this coalition or negotiate in parallel. Darfur’s more militarily powerful Justice and Equality Movement, meanwhile, continues its boycott of the talks.

Abdel Wahid’s presumed support among internally displaced persons and refugees, as well as his indirect command of some fighters in the Jebel Marra region, make him an important figure for legitimizing any potential rebel-government deal. The ruling party of Sudan, the National Congress, welcomed Abdel Wahid’s new position, according to a party spokesman quoted by a Khartoum daily newspaper.

Photo: Abdel Wahid Al Nur (left) and Djibril Bassole (right, USG photo)