France will not allow any dodging on the part of SLM's Abdel-Wahid Al-Nur to come to peace says Sudanese President Al-Bashir

FRANCE PROMISES TO PRESSURE SLM'S NUR ON PEACE TALKS: BASHIR - November 30, 2008 (DOHA) Sudan Tribune report - excerpt:

The Sudanese president Omar Hassan Al-Bashir said that his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy pledged to pressure a rebel leader to attend any future peace talks.

Al-Bashir told Sudan official news agency (SUNA) that his private meeting with Sarkozy tackled the Darfur crisis and the issue of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“The French position was firm. They will not allow any dodging on the part of Abdel-Wahid Al-Nur to come to peace” Al-Bashir said.

Relations between the two countries have been troubled particularly over the presence of Al-Nur leader of Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) in France despite demands by Khartoum that he be expelled.

Al-Nur has been refusing to attend peace talks insisting that Khartoum honor a ceasefire and facilitate deployment of UN peacekeepers in Darfur.



Photo: Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir addresses the UN conference on Financing for Development in Doha on November 29, 2008 (AFP)

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THE SUDAN PEOPLE'S INITIATIVE - A FLICKER OF OPTIMISM by Alex de Waal of Making Sense of Darfur, November 12, 2008

Comment by Khalid Al-Mubarak
November 27, 2008

I was in Khartoum for the last part of the Peoples’ Forum for peace in Darfur. It was more than a glimmer of hope. Alex de Waal is usually well informed but his claim that the government was responsible for the majority of ceasefire violations is simply not true.

After all, the government signed the DPA when the rebels refused and vowed to fight on. They continued to fight until JEM made its suicidal attack on 10 May 08. Remember too that the rebels started the crisis in the first place. What was the government expected to do? Compare the reaction of the WEST when its states were targeted by terror. Even the bedrocks of democratic liberties were compromised in order to fight terror.

The real danger is the fact that the rebels have been emboldened by the ICC. The most adventurous among them expect the ICC to hand them over the whole of Sudan. They are that naive. They and others would like to abort the road map which will lead to elections; because they know that they have no constituences to win an election. They also seem unaware of the real motives of some of those who sponsor them and finance them (directly and indirectly). There is no free lunch. Those who think that they can use the High and Mighty in their internal Sudanese strategies will soon discover that the tail never directs the head and body.

The moderates and wise (and there are some among the rebels) will hopefully agree to negotiate and see a reasonable window of opportunity in the Qatari Initiative which is supported by all the main players and (at least openly) by some western democracies.

The result of refusing the DPA in 06 was catastrophic for the people of Darfur (if not for the armchair rebels living in peace abroad). There is now a second chance. Let us hope they will not waste it.

Well said Khalid Al-Mubarak, I totally agree.

Nice line: "armchair rebels living in peace abroad".

Armchair rebels! Heh. I'm surprised I never thought of putting those two words together. Must remember to use them at a later date.