/ 12 September 2007

Violence flares ahead of Darfur peace talks

A senior Darfur rebel leader accused the Sudanese government on Wednesday of trying to grab land ahead of October peace talks, and threatened to pull out of the talks unless attacks stopped.

Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) leader Khalil Ibrahim said the violence in the remote west would make it impossible for him to travel to negotiations with Khartoum, due to take place in Libya on October 27.

”The government is escalating its attacks. There are daily attacks,” he said. ”They are killing civilians and animals and there are displaced people. They are trying to take as much land as possible before the peace talks and the arrival of peacekeeping troops.”

A JEM field commander said government aircraft had bombed villages close to a rebel-held town in north Darfur on Tuesday, killing six civilians. A Sudanese army spokesperson denied the army was escalating attacks and accused rebels of starting the fighting in Haskanita by ambushing government forces.

Ibrahim said if fighting persists it will be ”impossible for us to go” to the talks, adding: ”There is a war going on and we would have to fight for our survival.”

He said he was calling on the United Nations to step up its pressure on the Sudanese government to stop attacks in Darfur.

Khartoum signed a joint statement with the United Nations last week agreeing to end violence in Darfur, prepare for peace talks with rebel leaders in Libya, and help in the deployment of 26 000 UN and African Union peacekeepers in Darfur.

The reports of fresh violence on Tuesday came on the heels of fighting in Haskanita that involved the use of heavy weapons, including helicopter gunships on Monday.

Rebels: Six civilians killed

JEM field commander Abdel Aziz el-Nur Ashr said six civilians were killed on Tuesday in bombing raids on villages near Haskanita, and a JEM statement asked aid groups to help bury 500 to 600 government soldiers it said were killed in a failed ground attack on Haskanita after an aerial bombardment.

The Sudanese army spokesperson dismissed the rebel report on army casualties as an exaggeration, and blamed the rebels for the violence. He said the army had been ambushed and was then forced to call in air support as backup.

”It was a hostile action by the rebels,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. ”There were casualties on both sides. The situation remains unstable.”

Reports from rebel groups of the numbers of casualties and prisoners taken during that fighting have varied widely.

Meanwhile, ailing senior Darfur rebel figure Suleiman Jamous, the Sudan Liberation Movement’s humanitarian coordinator, said he had finally received a passport and exit visa and would leave the country for medical care as soon as the United Nations could arrange a flight.

International experts estimate 200 000 people have died and 2,5-million have been driven from their homes in the past four-and-a-half years of violence in Darfur, fuelled by ethnic and political conflict. Khartoum says 9 000 have died. — Reuters