Bashir urges disarmament
2009-09-20 16:16
Khartoum - Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Sunday called on Darfur rebels to lay down their arms and join peace talks, in the wake of fresh clashes in the war-torn region of western Sudan.
"The people of Darfur who still hold on to weapons to fight the government should abandon these weapons," he said in a speech for the Eid al-Fitr holidays which follow the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Rebels should "work with us in order to make the next round of talks in Doha the last phase of suffering for our people", he said, in the speech carried by the official Suna news agency.
"The war in Darfur is less (intense) and almost finished," said the president, who himself is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged crimes against humanity.
The rebel Sudan Liberation Army faction headed by Abdelwahid Nur said on Friday that the armed forces had attacked its positions in Jabal Marra and Korma in Darfur.
Prison exchange peace conference
On Sunday, the army said an attack had taken place on Thursday in Korma against members of SLA-Abdelwahid to "secure the region east of Jabal Marra and allow the return of displaced people back to their villages".
According to local sources, the fighting killed around 10 people and left several wounded, but peacekeepers from the joint UN-African Union force in Darfur (Umamid) were unable to confirm the toll.
"We are concerned about the impact of these clashes on the civilian population," Umamid spokesperson Noureddine Mezni said.
In February, the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), the most militarised of the Darfur groups, signed an accord with Khartoum in Doha for a prisoner exchange and an eventual peace conference on Darfur.
The US envoy to Sudan, Scott Gration, is trying to get bring together the fragmented rebel groups for the next round of talks in Doha in October, but the exiled Abdelwahid Nur refuses to join.
The UN says up to 300 000 people have died and 2.7 million fled their homes since ethnic minority rebels in Darfur first rose up against the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum in February 2003.
The government says 10 000 people have been killed.