Sudan welcomes Qatari consultations with two Darfur rebel movements

Sudan government on Wednesday welcomed engagement of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLM) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) in consultations with the Qatari mediation to join a Darfur peace deal, official SUNA news agency reported.

"Sudan government has expressed readiness to hear from the two movements any concerns or worries within the context of Darfur issues that the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD) has not addressed the options about them," the agency quoted Amin Hassan Omer, head of Sudan's Darfur peace follow-up office, as saying.

Omer stressed that the DDPD is the base for any negotiating process for joining the peace in the region, noting that the texts of the document are not subject to renegotiation.

He reiterated that the joint mediation, represented in the joint African Union mediator and Qatar, is the African, Arab and internationally recognized party to continue negotiation on joining the peace process.

The Sudanese official urged the two movements to commit themselves to the option of wisdom and join the peaceful process and participate in the realization of stability and development in Darfur.

Two days ago, the Qatari deputy prime minister and head of the DDPD Implementation Follow-up Commission Ahmad bin Abdullah Al Mahmoud started discussions in Doha with the JEM leader Jibril Ibrahim and SLM leader Minni Minnawi on how to join the Darfur peace deal.

The rebel JEM, SLM/Abdul-Wahid Mohamed Nur faction and the SLM/Minni Minnawi faction rejected the DDPD, saying that it did not fulfill the demands of the Darfur people.

The rebel JEM and SLM have earlier asked Qatar to play a bigger role in the mediation file with the Sudanese government by joining the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel on Sudan (AUHIP), led by Thabo Mbeki, to narrow the differences between the rivals. Endit