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Also known as the Sudanese Liberation Army. ... An internal power struggle came out into the open in November, when Minni Minnawi organized a congress at which he was elected president, and movement founder Abdel Wahid Nur was removed as chairman. ... Both still claim leadership and both factions sent representatives to the peace talks, although only Minnawi's group signed the accord.
Took up arms in February 2003, accusing the Arab-dominated central government of neglecting an impoverished region that had seen decades of low-level tribal clashes over land and water.
Emerged from self-defense groups that had been active in the restive region for years. ... Its base is among the Fur and Zaghawa, main ethnic African tribes in Darfur. ... Darfur is predominantly Muslim, but the SLM is considered more secular and broad-based than the other rebels.
Darfur heated up just as the unrelated southern war was ending after 21 years. ... The Sudanese government resists attempts to portray the north-south peace agreement, which created an autonomous south and gives southerners a chance to vote on independence, as a model for resolving Darfur crisis. ... But the SLM, seen as close to former southern rebels, has pressed for similar autonomy, if not outright independence.
Led by Khalil Ibrahim, a veteran politician close to Sudan's leading fundamentalist Islamic ideologue Hassan Turabi. ... In 2000, Ibrahim published the "Black Book," which caused a stir with its argument that power in Sudan had been monopolized by an Arabized elite in Khartoum that marginalized other regions and other ethnic groups.
Its base is among the Zaghawa ethnic group. ... Like SLM, it calls for more autonomy but not outright independence.
The JEM has clashed with SLM over territory in Darfur and bickered with it in Abuja. ... Its relationship with the government is further complicated by Ibrahim's links to Turabi.
Turabi helped bring Sudan President Omar al-Bashir to power in a 1989 coup, then worked to implement Islamic law, but fell out with al-Bashir in 1999. ... Turabi has since spent most of his time in prison or under house arrest, but remains influential. ... The government last year accused Ibrahim of playing a central role, along with leaders of Turabi's Popular Congress party, in an alleged plot to overthrow al-Bashir.
AP-ES-05-05-06 1605EDT
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) - Thanks in part to last-minute U.S. diplomacy, two years of Darfur peace talks beset by setbacks and frustration ended with a signing ceremony (Friday May 5).
Now the hard part: ensuring pledges to stop the fighting and begin rebuilding translate to an end to Darfur's suffering. The key may be a robust U.N. peacekeeping force, which Sudan's government has indicated it is now willing to accept.
While the main Darfur rebel group signed the accord, two others rejected it, saying it did not go far enough to meet their demands for security and power-sharing guarantees and compensation for war victims. Optimism was muted by the two groups' absence and by a history of failure to live up to agreements.
Members of the fractious rebel camp are united in accusing Sudan's central government of neglecting their impoverished western region, but divided because of leadership rivalries and differing approaches.
The peace deal was backed by the African Union, the United States, Britain, the European Union and the Arab League. It calls for a cease-fire, disarmament of militias linked to the government and accused of some of the war's worst atrocities, the integration of thousands of rebel fighters into Sudan's armed forces and a protection force for civilians in the immediate aftermath of the war.
Political provisions include guarantees that rebel factions will have the majority in Darfur's three state legislatures, though the rebels did not get the national vice presidency they had sought.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick indicated the two rebel groups that did not sign the accord could be bypassed, an assessment bolstered when one of the groups split Friday, with dissenters criticizing their leader for not embracing the treaty. Zoellick said implementing the agreement would be a challenge, but said he was looking ahead to organizing a U.N. peacekeeping force for Darfur.
The Sudanese government initially rejected calls for U.N. peacekeepers to replace the thousands of African Union peacekeepers now in Darfur, but indicated Friday it would yield once the peace treaty was signed.
Observers broke into applause and whoops of joy as the parties signed the last page and then proceeded to initial each of the 85 pages of a document written by the African Union and then revised by U.S., British and other envoys to meet rebel concerns. The hall in a presidential villa was filled with traditional leaders in white turbans, fighters in camouflage turbans, diplomats and journalists.
"Unless the right spirit, unless the right attitude and right disposition is there, this document isn't worth the paper it is signed on," said Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, a key figure in peacemaking efforts across Africa and host of the protracted Darfur talks. "Those who don't sign, we will continue to appeal to them. The window of opportunity must not be allowed to close."
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, just returned from a tour of Darfur, said in Khartoum on Friday that the peace deal "will open up space for improvement," but first must be implemented. She added she hoped it would encourage donors to come back and help the desperate people of Darfur.
The largest rebel group, Minni Minnawi's faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement signed the accord. A faction led by his rival, Abdel Wahid Nur, and the smaller Justice and Equality Movement rejected it, expressing concerns security and compensation for war victims had not been guaranteed and because it called for a top presidential adviser from Darfur instead of a vice president.
Nur met with Obasanjo for hours Friday, delaying the signing ceremony, and then briefly went into the hall where the accord was to be signed.
He left, telling reporters the proposed accord was "a big disaster" because he believed it did not go far enough to guarantee disarmament of the Janjaweed militia linked to the atrocities. Nigerian security forces tried to stop Nur from speaking to reporters, then barred reporters who had followed him out from returning to witness the signing.
Sudan's government agreed days ago to an initial proposal drafted by African Union mediators and has been flexible as U.S. and British officials fine-tuned it to address rebel concerns.
Deadlines have been extended twice since Sunday, and Thursday's session went five hours beyond the midnight time limit.
At least 180,000 people have been killed and more than 2 million forced to flee their homes in what the United Nations has called one of the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The Darfur conflict, which erupted in February 2003, also has spilled into Chad and the Central African Republic. The violence threatens to escalate: Osama bin Laden last week urged his followers to go to Sudan to fight a proposed U.N. presence.
Aid groups say the security situation must be quickly addressed, in part to allow them to do their work. Oxfam called Friday for bolstering the African Union force already in Darfur, rather than awaiting U.N. peacekeepers who could take months to arrive.
"The deteriorating situation in Darfur must be addressed urgently, and not put off until if or when a U.N. force may be in place," said Paul Smith-Lomas, who directs the Darfur operations of the British aid group Oxfam.
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Associated Press writer Bashir Adigun in Abuja contributed to this report.
AP-ES-05-05-06 1551EDT
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) - Two of three rebel groups battling in Sudan's Darfur rejected a peace pact Friday (May 5), but the third said it was willing -- with reservations -- to embrace an internationally backed effort to end the death and destruction in western Sudan.
Sudan's government agreed days ago to an initial proposal drafted by African Union mediators and has been flexible as U.S. and British officials tried to fine tune it to address rebel concerns. Members of the fractious rebel camp are united in accusing the central government of neglecting their impoverished region, but divided because of personal rivalries and differing approaches.
"In principle, we, for our part, have agreed to sign" the revised peace agreement, Minni Minnawi, leader of one of two faction of the main rebel Sudanese Liberation Movement, told the Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera Friday. "But there are many measures that need to be taken to move from principally agreeing to signing. These include amending some of the proposals and including the brothers in all the movements."
"I don't know when the signing can take place."
Minnawi said he had met with leaders of the other main rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement. His spokesman Saifaldin Haroun said the Minnawi faction would try to persuade the other SLM faction, led by Abdel Wahid Nur, to accept.
Jaffer Monro, spokesman for the Nur faction, said his group was meeting to discuss Minnawi's stance. Baba Gana Kingide, the special AU envoy to Sudan, said he expected the Nur faction to return to negotiations later Friday after walking out before dawn.
Haroun said the Minnawi faction still had concerns about power sharing, but was no longer insisting Sudan have a vice president from Darfur. The other factions were believed to have rejected the agreement over security concerns, because it called for a top presidential adviser from Darfur instead of a vice president, and other issues.
Envoys from the African Union, the United States, Britain, the European Union and the Arab League have been pushing for a resolution and talks continued Friday. Deadlines have been extended twice since Sunday and Thursday's session went five hours beyond the midnight time limit.
Splits within the Darfur rebel camp have frustrated negotiators throughout the two-year peace process.
A power struggle within the SLM came out into open in November. Both Minnawi and movement founder Nur claim leadership, though some of Nur's supporters have questioned his leadership style in recent months.
The SLM, emerging from self-defense groups that have been active in the region for years, launched a full-scale revolt in early 2003, accusing Sudan's Arab-dominated central government of neglecting an impoverished region that had seen decades of low-level tribal clashes over land and water.
The government denies charges it responded to the rebel challenge by unleashing ethnic Arab militias known as Janjaweed in genocidal attacks upon civilians. In signing onto the proposed peace plan, the government agreed to speedy disarmament of the Janjaweed.
The SLM's base is among the Fur and Zaghawa, the main ethnic African tribes in predominantly Muslim Darfur. It's seen as more secular and more broad-based than the JEM.
JEM leader Khalil Ibrahim is a veteran politician close to Sudan's leading fundamentalist Islamic ideologue, Hassan Turabi. The JEM, which has its base among the Zaghawa, has clashed with SLM over territory. Its relationship with the government is further complicated by Ibrahim's links to Turabi, who helped bring Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir to power in a 1989 coup but fell out with him in 1999.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick told reporters negotiators were trying to get the rebels to rise above politics and rivalries, emphasizing "that there are 2 million people in camps there, people dying everyday and the people of Darfur need their leaders to seize an opportunity for peace."
U.S. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, speaking in New York, reminded world leaders that at September's World Summit they had agreed it was each state's responsibility to protect its citizens, "But where they fail, or are unable to do so, or they themselves are the perpetrators, the international community, through the (Security) Council, has to take action, and, if need by, by force."
The time had come to redeem that pledge in Darfur, Annan said in an interview on "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" on PBS television.
The U.N. Security Council a year ago authorized seizure of assets and a travel ban on individuals defying peace efforts or violating human rights law in Darfur. Those sanctions were imposed for the first time last month against a commander of the Sudanese air force, a Janjaweed militia leader and two rebel commanders.
At least 180,000 people have been killed and more than 2 million forced to flee their homes in what the United Nations has called one of the world's worst humanitarian crisis. The Darfur conflict also has spilled into Chad and Central African Republic. The violence threatens to escalate: Osama bin Laden last week urged his followers to go to Sudan to fight a proposed U.N. presence.
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AP writer Bashir Adigun in Abuja contributed to this report.
AP-CS-05-05-06 0714EDT
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) - A Darfur rebel faction is reconsidering its rejection of a peace agreement signed by Sudan's government and the main insurgency group, African Union Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare said Thursday.
Abdel Wahid Nur leads the larger rebel faction of the two that held out last week in Abuja, Nigeria, on signing the accord meant to help end fighting that has killed at least 180,000 people and displaced more than 2 million.
"We have been approached by the movement of Abdel Wahid, who has shown interest in being part" of the Darfur peace agreement, Konare told The Associated Press in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, where he is attending a conference on Africa.
"This is an opening," Konare said, adding that the rebel leader and the AU were negotiating, though details were vague. "There are contacts going on."
"If new parties want to join, maybe they need more guarantees," Konare said, but he did not say what those guarantees -- or possibly Nur's demands -- could be.
"If we have a united front ... we should be able to give this guarantee," he said.
The news that the AU as in talks with Nur could signal a significant development in the Darfur peace drive.
In Abuja, AU spokesman Sam Ibok told the AP that the union had received a letter from Nur, indicating his condition for joining the deal.
"We have received a letter from Abdel Wahid saying that they have some reservations on the agreement, but if those are rectified, they're ready to sign," Ibok said, without giving details.
Ibrahim Mabido, a negotiatior for Nur's faction, said the issues raised in the letter include the disarmament of the Janjaweed Arab militia and power sharing.
"If they are now attached as a supplement to this agreement then Mr. Chairman Abdel Wahid is ready to sign," Mabido said in Abuja.
He said he expects the AU to respond to the letter "as soon as possible."
Nur's group is a splinter faction from the main Darfur rebel organization, the Sudanese Liberation Movement of Minni Minnawi, which signed the accord. Nur has fewer fighters on the ground, but his base is with the Fur, the largest tribe in Darfur.
After Nur rejected the agreement, one of his top negotiators, Abdulrahman Moussa, formed his own Front for Liberation and Renaissance and said he supported the agreement, apparently halving Nur's camp in favor of the peace treaty.
Nur had argued that the accord did not go far enough to guarantee disarmament of the Janjaweed, the militia allegedly backed by the Sudanese government and accused of some of the war's worst atrocities.
"There are no perfect solutions. A compromise with guarantees that can improve the solution, we must have it, and that is the only way we can move forward," Konare said.
"If there is peace in Sudan, it is the best signal we can give to the rest of the world that we have a will to make Africa advance," he later told reporters.
U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown warned that the Darfur agreement was "fragile, and we will quickly see it tested."
Thursday's conference focused on Darfur, peace-building measures for Africa and the Scandinavian country's aid to the impoverished continent.
Along with Konare and Malloch Brown, Mozambique's Prime Minister Luisa Dias Diogo and Tanzania's foreign minister, Asha-Rose Migiro, attended the gathering at the Danish Foreign Ministry, hosted by Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
The United States and other world powers are pushing for a force under the command of the United Nations that is double the size of the AU force in Darfur, but Sudan's government has yet to agree.
The AU's 7,200 peacekeepers, now low on funds, have largely been ineffective in stopping atrocities and re-establishing security, leaving tens of thousands of people in camps, with little food or water.
Konare has backed calls for a U.N. peacekeeping force to be deployed quickly and expressed hope the United Nations would soon decide on whether to send Darfur peacekeepers.
Malloch Brown said the U.N. force should be "very African in character, supplemented by non-African assets."
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Associated Press writer Mohammed Bashir in Abuja, Nigeria, contributed to this report.
AP-CS-05-11-06 1455EDT
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) - Two years of peace talks culminated Friday with a Darfur peace treaty accepted by the government and the main rebel group. Some questions and answers about the process.
Q. What next?
A. Implementing the accord could prove difficult. Two smaller rebel groups have refused to sign and may keep fighting. Both the rebel and government sides, fighting for three years, have repeatedly failed to live up to agreements. A cease-fire signed in 2004 is in tatters. A robust U.N. peacekeeping force to replace thousands of African Union troops could help keep the peace. The Sudanese government had earlier refused to accept U.N. peacekeepers, but Friday indicated it would welcome such a force.
Q. Could U.N. troops be deployed soon?
A. No. The U.N. must first send experts to determine what kind of force is needed -- and the Sudanese have so far refused to give the U.N. visas to conduct such an assessment. Then the U.N. must come up with options to be presented to the Security Council for approval. Once the council approves, the U.N. peacekeeping department starts contacting nations about contributing troops. So far, no countries have indicated they would take part, though the U.S. has been a chief proponent of the idea. NATO is expected to provide only logistical support and training.
Q. What led to Friday's breakthrough?
A. The African Union, which has been mediating the talks for two years, demanded in March that the parties agree to a peace proposal it had drafted by April 30. The Security Council endorsed the deadline. The Sudanese government accepted the African Union draft, but the rebels rejected it hours before the April 30 deadline. Then a top U.S. envoy and a British Cabinet minister flew to Abuja to put pressure on the rebels and to fine-tune the African Union draft to meet some rebel concerns.
Q. What are the main provisions of the peace treaty?
A. A cease-fire, disarmament of militias linked to the government and accused of some of the war's worst atrocities, integration of thousands of rebel fighters into Sudan's armed forces, protection force for civilians, establishment of a reconstruction and development fund and provisions to compensate war victims.
Political provisions include guarantees that rebel factions will have the majority in Darfur's three state legislatures; the rebels did not get the national vice presidency they had sought.
Q. What prompted some rebels to reject it?
A. Demands for a vice president's spot as opposed to a top presidential adviser from Darfur and concerns that security and compensation for war victims were not guaranteed.
Q. How will a peace treaty affect humanitarian concerns?
A. Aid groups say fighting between rebel and government forces and among rebel factions not only threatens civilians, but has made it almost too dangerous for them to do their work. That would change if the cease-fire is respected, and, if it is implemented in time, villagers could return to their fields for planting season. In addition, optimism sparked by a peace treaty might encourage international donors to step up funding for humanitarian work. U.N. and other aid agencies working in Darfur have had to drastically cut feeding and other programs because donors weary of the war have ignored repeated pleas for funding.
Already, at least 180,000 people have been killed and more than 2 million forced to flee their homes in what the United Nations has called one of the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
Q. What are the origins of the conflict?
A. The rebels, with their support bases in Darfur's ethnic African tribes, took up arms in early 2003, accusing Sudan's Arab-dominated central government of neglecting an impoverished region that had seen decades of tribal clashes over land and water. The government is accused of responding by unleashing ethnic Arab militia on African civilians, a charge it denies but that led to accusations of genocide.
Tension between Arab and African ethnic groups and between the autocratic center and the rest of the country have repeatedly erupted into violence in Sudan.
Q. Could the Darfur conflict spread?
A. It already has. Chadian rebels have taken advantage of the chaos to prepare their rebellion in the region where Chad and Darfur meet and Chad's president says they are backed by Sudan. Reports from the Central African Republic say armed opponents of that government also are using the Darfur region as a staging ground. Refugee movement has put a strain on resources and stability. And Osama bin Laden recently urged his followers to go to Sudan to fight the proposed U.N. presence.
AP-ES-05-05-06 1411EDT
KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) - Sudan would welcome the help of the United Nations in Darfur to implement a peace agreement between Khartoum and one of the rebel groups, despite the country's initial resistance, a government spokesman said.
Bakri Mulah, secretary-general for external affairs in the Information Ministry, was speaking a day after the agreement was reached in Abuja, Nigeria. His comments Saturday opened the door for the possibility that Sudan could accept U.N. peacekeepers to replace the thousands of African Union peacekeepers now in Darfur.
The Sudanese government had initially rejected calls for deploying a U.N. force.
"We heard the appeal of the U.N. secretary general.... Now there is no problem," he said. "The Sudan government will be open for any assistance. It will not reject or oppose any effort either from the EU (European Union) or from the United States or from the United Nations in realizing peace in Darfur on the grounds of this agreement," he told The Associated Press in English.
But later Saturday, Egypt's Middle East News Agency quoted Mulah as saying: "It is too early to talk about accepting or rejecting international forces. This has not been decided yet."
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said: "We look forward to working with the Sudanese authorities on the eventual transition to a U.N. force and also in the short-term on the strengthening of the African Union force currently in Sudan."
He reiterated Secretary-General Kofi Annan's comment on Friday that after the Abuja agreement "we would, of course, expect to have access given to a U.N. planning team that will need to go to Darfur."
Two rebel groups have rejected the accord backed by the African Union, United States, Britain, the European Union and the Arab League and skipped the signing ceremony in a hall at a Nigerian presidential villa Friday night.
Optimism was muted by that and a history of failure to live up to agreements struck over two years of negotiations in the Nigerian capital.
At the U.N., American Ambassador John Bolton welcomed the agreement but said U.N. peacekeepers would become essential if the agreement were to hold.
"Recognizing that this is a very positive development in Abuja, we now would like the government in Khartoum to follow through and give the necessary visas and other arrangements to allow the U.N. planners to go in," Bolton said. That would lead to the strengthening of the African Union force during the transition, he said.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, who helped spur negotiators to agree to stop the killing, said the embattled East African region was far from safe even if the peace agreement were to take hold.
U.S. President George W. Bush intervened during the difficult negotiations, sending a letter to the leader of the largest rebel group, Minni Minnawi, with assurances that the United States would give strong support to implementation of the peace accord, help monitoring compliance, hold accountable those who do not cooperate and support a donors' conference for Darfur, Zoellick said in a telephone interview from Abuja with reporters in Washington.
In Cairo, Egypt welcomed the agreement and said it was ready to participate in the peacekeeping force that would monitor its implementation, according to a statement released by the Egyptian presidency. The statement called on all sides to honor the accord.
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa also welcomed the agreement and urged the rebel groups that opted out to reverse their decisions.
Moussa, in a statement faxed to the AP, expressed confidence that the agreement would end the violence and open the way for reconstruction and development.
Mulah said the agreement also would help in repairing relations between Sudan and Chad, strained over the flood of refugees from Darfur.
Beyond that, he told AP, he expected Minnawi, the head of the Sudan Liberation Movement, to play an important role in the peace process as a member Sudan's national unity government.
Mulah said the agreement was not closed to other rebel groups who had refused to sign.
"The other parties still have a chance to do so, but if they refuse then they will be treated just like the Janjajweed (the anti-rebel militia the government was accused of backing) or any other outlaw factions.
"This is not a government stand, it is that of the international community, the AU, the U.N. and the U.S. They will not tolerate any violation of the agreement, " he warned.
Separately, Sadiq el-Mahdi--the leader of Umma, Sudan's largest opposition party--criticized the accord, saying he expected future disagreements.
"The people of Darfur deserve a power- and wealth-sharing formula that correspond with their population. This did not happen," he told Al-Arabiya satellite channel.
But he added that having an international peacekeeping force could be a positive step.
"We hope that they would protect the peace and the security ... of the people of Darfur. This sparks hope."
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Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
AP-CS-05-06-06 2004EDT
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