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| Africa Horn |
| Sudan Rebels Refuse to Sign Peace Accord |
| 2006-05-01 |
| Rebels from the war-torn Sudanese region of Darfur met with African Union (AU) mediators here yesterday to officially reject a peace deal as the deadline for peace negotiations loomed. Two anti-Khartoum rebel movements, the Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), had earlier issued statements that they had taken a “joint position” not to sign the AU-brokered peace accord. “This document is not acceptable to us, and we are not going to go by it or sign it,” JEM spokesman Ahmed Hussain said. “We will submit our joint position on this issue to the AU mediation team this afternoon.” Hopes for the peace agreement appeared to have been dashed as the meeting started, after the AU responded that the content of the deal would not change. Saifaldin Haroun, spokesman for the main faction of the SLM, said: “We will not sign this agreement. We will only sign the agreement that includes all our demands, certainly not this one. This is the position of the two movements.” The rebel statements came just hours before a deadline set by the AU and the United Nations to complete peace negotiations to end a conflict, which has killed 300,000 people and displaced 2.4 million in three years of fighting. |
| Posted by:Fred |