Rebel disunity threatens Darfur peace effort - ICG

Efforts by the African Union (AU) to end violence in the war-torn western Sudanese region of Darfur could fail unless rebel leaders there act to unify their groups, an international think tank warned on Thursday. "Unless reversed, the slow implosion of the rebel movements threatens to extend the tragic situation in Darfur indefinitely," the International Crisis Group (ICG) said in report entitled, "Unifying Darfur's Rebels: A Prerequisite for Peace". "As long as the rebels, the SL[M/]A [Sudan Liberation Movement/ Army] in particular, remain divided and the fighting in Darfur continues, there is little hope for real success at the African Union (AU)-sponsored peace talks in Abuja, since the government is likely to exploit and exacerbate rebel weakness at the [negotiating] table," the report said. The conflict in Darfur pits Sudanese government troops and allied militias like the Janjawid against two main rebel groups, the SLM/A and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), which claim to be fighting the marginalisation of their region by the Khartoum-based government. According to the UN, at least 2.9 million people continue to be affected by the conflict, of whom 1.85 million are internally displaced or have fled to neighbouring Chad. The Brussels-based ICG said the fragmentation of both the SLM/A and JEM could contribute to a limited settlement in which the government regained a semblance of authority in Darfur through local deals with tribal leaders and other factions, while the rebel movements could find themselves increasingly isolated and irrelevant. "Frustrated as it is, the international community would, nevertheless, make a mistake if it chose an appearance of stability over a comprehensive solution since that would leave the root causes of the conflict untouched, despite hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of displacements," it said. Rivalry between two SLM/A factions has often weakened the movement's negotiating efforts, undermining the group's ability to offer a credible and united front, the ICG report said. The head of the SLM/A delegation in the peace talks in Abuja, Abdulrahman Musa, is thought to represent the Fur ethnic wing of the movement, loyal to the movement's chairman, Abdul Wahid Mohammed Nur. A second faction - under SLM/A general secretary Mani Arko Minawi - is believed to represent the militarily powerful Zaghawa ethnic wing. "The SLM/A, the dominant rebel force on the ground, is increasingly an obstacle to peace,” the ICG said. "Internal divisions, particularly among its political leadership, attacks against humanitarian convoys, and armed clashes with JEM have undermined the peace talks and raised questions about its legitimacy. JEM, while less important militarily and suspect among many Darfurians for its more national and Islamist agenda, has similar problems," the report added. The ICG was also critical of the Sudanese government, saying that Khartoum had continued to flout its "numerous commitments to neutralise its allied proxy militia, the Janjawid". The Janjawid has been widely blamed for most of the atrocities committed against civilians in Darfur. The ICG, however, said a lasting political solution to the Darfur crisis was still possible if the AU, Sudan's neighbours, the United Nations, the United States and the European Union brought pressure to bear on the rebel groups to resolve their internal differences. Meanwhile, an emergency meeting of the Peace and Security Council of the AU to discuss the recent upsurge of violence in Darfur was postponed to give delegates more time for informal consultations. "The meeting was postponed but no new date has been set yet," El Ghassim Wane, head of AU's conflict management division, said. The emergency session of the council on Darfur was to have taken place on Wednesday at the AU headquarters in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. It had been called after the head of the AU Mission in Sudan (AMIS), Baba Gana Kingibe, stridently criticised both the Sudanese government and the SLM/A, saying they were both responsible for recent ceasefire violations and violence that left dozens of civilians dead. The full ICG report is available at: www.reliefweb.int