Sudan’s Islamist opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi on Tuesday criticised the Darfur peace agreement signed earlier this month as partial and incomplete, a senior official from his party told Agence France-Presse.
The Popular Congress Party (PCP) head met with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan’s top envoy in Sudan, Jan Pronk, who has engaged in intensive diplomatic efforts to secure the endorsement of the agreement by holdout rebels.
“Dr al-Turabi explained to the UN representative the position of the PCP, which considers the Abuja agreement incomplete and partial,” PCP politburo chief Beshir Adam Rahmah told reporters.
Khartoum and the largest Darfur rebel faction from the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) signed a peace agreement on May 5 under the aegis of the African Union, raising hopes of an end to the more than three-year-old conflict.
But an SLM faction headed by Abdel Wahid Mohammed al-Nur, and the smaller Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), have refused to endorse the agreement, arguing that their most basic demands have not been met.
Al-Turabi, whose party has ties with the JEM rebel group, insisted that “Darfur should be represented in the presidency” during the interim period following a comprehensive peace agreement.
Once the power behind President Omar al-Beshir’s throne, al-Turabi fell from grace in 2000 and was detained several times. He was last released in June 2005, and remains one of Sudan’s leading opposition figures. — AFP