JEM And SLM Say They Cannot Be Threatened To Join Doha Talks

16 November 2010 – (Khartoum/Doha) – The UNAMID Joint Special Representative says that there will be negative consequences if the Darfur anti-government groups, the JEM and the SLM-Abdulwahid’s faction fail to participate in the Doha talks.

Professor Ibrahim Gambari addressed a press conference in Khartoum on Sunday.

[Ibrahim Gambari]: “JEM must take this opportunity very seriously. As the members of the Sudan consultative forum which took place on the 6th of November in Addis Ababa stressed there would be very negative consequences both for the people of Darfur and for JEM as a movement if it fails to take advantage of this opportunity to the peace process.”

However, the two anti-government groups responded by saying that no one will force them to participate in the Doha peace talks.

JEM head of negotiation, Ahmed Togud Lisan told SRS on Sunday from Doha that they will only join the talks once their demands are met.

[Ahmed Togud Lisan]: “We don’t care about sanctions, we don’t care about other people’s position, what we care about is the interests of our cause and the interests of our people. When our demands are met we will join the negotiations, if not we can tell the international community and anybody who cares about the issue that, we can’t be part of a comedy and be losers at the end. The whole issue will be rearranged in a manner that the National Congress Party will be able to play a light role in.”

On the other hand, the official spokesperson of the SLM-Abdulwahid’s faction, Ahmed Ibrahim Yousif said their movement will not lose at all if sanctions are imposed on them.

[Ahmed Ibrahim Yousif]: “We the Sudan Liberation Movement we won’t lose anything. I mean we don’t have assets and we don’t have anything. No weapons are given to us from outside Sudan, nothing at all. We were threatened before after Abuja, the SLM was threatened, particularly the chairman Ustaz Mohamed Nur, but sanctions are supposed to be imposed on people who are killing others, those who are carrying mass genocide in an organized manner until now.”

That was the official spokesperson for SLM-Wahid faction, Ahmed Ibrahim Yousif speaking to SRS on Sunday.