CAIRO -- Rebels from the Sudan Liberation Movement claimed Friday to have killed a large number of soldiers and captured military equipment in an attack on an army position in the western Darfur region. SLM Secretary General Mani Arkoi Minawi told AFP in a telephone call his forces "annihiliated" an unspecified number of soldiers" Thursday and had captured 25 vehicles, as well as arms, including rocket launchers and heavy machine guns. The attack was in the Adar area of North Darfur state. Minawi said Sunday the SLM wanted to join the southern Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) rebels in peace talks with the government. He reported that his movement had decided to "begin a dialogue with the Sudan People's Liberation Army in order to reach a comprehensive solution on the entire Sudanese territory." The SLM has claimed a number of attacks in the Darfur region since it surfaced for the first time in February. The government has refused to acknowledge any political motivation for unrest in the states of North, South and West Darfur, blaming it instead on "armed criminal gangs and outlaws," who it says are aided by tribes from neighboring Chad.
This is an interesting phenomenon. SLM didn't exist before February, and then they claim last week to have bumped off 500 troops and taken another 300 prisoner. This week they slaughter more, and grab 25 trucks (or whatever). And now they want to sit down next to SPLA and carve off their own chunk of autonomous Sudan. It raises my suspicions, but...
Darfur's a pretty nasty area. Khartoum is accused of carrying out a program of ethnic cleansing there, verging on genocide and the best they can do is make a claim of "neutrality" between the Arab slavers and the indigenes. Last year 88 people in the area were sentenced to death by hanging or crucifixion. Off the top of my head, I can't think of anywhere else in the world that carries out crucifixions. So the more I think about it, the more I hope the claims of 500 gummint dead aren't inflated. Darfur had it's own king for 2000 years or so, and if it drops off from Sudan it will probably be the better for it. |
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