Khartoum 'preparing attacks'
2006-02-07 22:35
Asmara - East Sudan's main rebel group on Tuesday accused Khartoum of preparing attacks against its positions and called off long-delayed peace talks that were to have begun this week in Libya.
The Eastern Front said the Sudanese government was acting duplicitously by at once readying for the expected negotiations in Tripoli and an imminent assault on its bases with troops and pro-Khartoum militias.
It said: "The Eastern Front declares the postponement of the expected talks in Tripoli to an unspecified date."
It said that the group would "confront the National Congress machinations designed to destroy the cause of the Eastern Front", alleging that the government planned to attack its positions during the peace talks.
Gunmen 'wreaking havoc'
The statement said Khartoum was preparing "for an assault on the camps of the Eastern Front at a time when the leaders and cadres are meant to be in Tripoli negotiating with the government".
The front said that Khartoum was recruiting the so-called "Janjaweed" militia in eastern Sudan as it had done in the troubled western region of Darfur, where the gunmen were accused of wreaking havoc and mayhem.
An Eastern Front official said: "It is the same as the Janjaweed being deployed in Darfur.
"This is a very divisive policy that pits members of the same community against each other."
UN troops deployed to tense region
In January, the front accused the Sudanese army of launching an attack on its camps in the eastern Hamesh Koreb region, sparking clashes that left casualties.
UN troops had since been deployed to the tense region.
The peace talks - the first-ever between the Eastern Front and Khartoum - were initially scheduled for November, but had been postponed several times since and had been set to begin on Tuesday in the Libyan capital.
Like their better-known rebel counterparts in Darfur, the Eastern Front complained of marginalisation by the government in Khartoum, which it accused of exploiting natural resources such as oil, natural gas, gold and other minerals at the expense of the local population.
Influential policy group
The Eastern Front was founded by eastern Sudan's two main rebel groups, the Beja Congress and the Free Lions, early last year and claimed to have launched its first offensive against the government positions in the Red Sea state last June.
An influential policy group warned in January that simmering tensions in east Sudan were a "powder keg" that could explode into a major war, damaging peace efforts in Darfur and last year's north-south peace deal.
The International Crisis Group called on the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, former southern rebels who were now part of a power-sharing government in Khartoum, to urge Sudan's leadership to negotiate in good faith with the Eastern Front.