Sudan politician: security arrangement of peace treaty ‘a concern’

The Chairman of the Darfur Regional Authority (DRA) declared that the security arrangement included in a peace treaty signed between formal rebel factions and the Government of Sudan has become “a concern to regional authorities”. However, Dr Tijani Sese said, tensions may increase if the security arrangement is not implemented.In line with the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD) former rebel fighters are entitled to be absorbed into the national armed forces or to be assigned to political posts, for example. The Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM), led by Dr Tijani Sese, signed a peace treaty with Khartoum in 2011 but some sources claim the government is delaying its implementation.Speaking at the opening of the Regional Council in Nyala, Sese said the DRA is not able to enforce the implementation of the security arrangement “in the absence of security”.“The most prominent security threats in Darfur and for the DDPD are represented by the armed movements, bloody ethnic and tribal confrontations, armed criminal activities, such as carjacking and drug trafficking,” Sese suggested.The security arrangement implementation impasse, he said, comes due to disputes with the Sudanese army on the number of LJM fighters who should be integrated into the regular forces, “which President Bashir agreed to several months ago.”In April, a DRA Minister declared that the execution of the security arrangement was delayed because the LJM is not able to discern its troops who joined the peace treaty before and after it was signed. The claims were dismissed by LJM soon after.DRA was created within the framework of the DDPD and it is tasked with implementing the agreement. The body comprises former rebel fighters as some of its members.Although the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon stated in an April report that “only limited progress was made in the implementation of the majority of the DDPD provisions”, Sese asserted that 60 percent of the treaty has been implemented so far.“Darfur tragedy will be prolonged”On the same occasion, Dr Tijani Sese declared that if displaced camps in Darfur do not cease to exist, the “Darfur tragedy will be prolonged”. He noted that the situation at the camps is “very bad”, especially with the arrival of newly displaced persons fleeing attacks in Labado and Muhajeriya, East Darfur, and renewed tribal conflicts in South Darfur.The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recently announced that newly displaced “continue arriving in South Darfur camps” from East and South Darfur.By 19 May the International Organization for Migration (IOM) had verified the arrival of almost 4,000 new displaced persons in South Darfur’s Dreige camp in the previous few months. Most of them come from East Darfur, while others come from Umm Dukhun (Central Darfur), Umm Gonja, Danbar, Marla, Hejair, and Abu Jabra (South Darfur).In Attash camp, the Humanitarian Aid Commission and community leaders verified the arrival of about 14,000 new displaced persons, while IOM registered another 2,355. Fleeing recent clashes across Darfur, they come from Labado and Muhajeriya and Marla and Hejair. The verification of new arrivals is ongoing.In Sakali camp the international NGO Muslim Aid UK registered the arrival of more than 10,000 new displaced. They come from several villages in Bielel, El Salam and Ed El Fursan localities in South Darfur, an OCHA report stated.Separately, UNHCR announced that 300 refugees from Sudan continue arriving in Tissi, Chad, on a daily basis “as tensions persist in parts of Darfur as a result of recent sparks of inter-tribal conflicts.”“The new arrivals say that many more are on their way to Chad but that armed groups have been preventing them from crossing the border,” it was stated.Until last year Chad had received about 300,000 refugees from Sudan in nearly ten years of conflicts in Darfur. However, at least 50,000 people fled Sudan to Chad in 2013 only. UNHCR called it the largest influx of people from Darfur to Chad since 2005.File photo: 25 March 2013. Nyala: Dr Tijani Sese delivers his speech at the Internally Displaced Persons and Refugees Conference in Nyala, South Darfur (Albert González Farran/Unamid) Related:Families flee ‘rough justice’ to Kalma camp in South Darfur (23 May 2013)UN report: Ban Ki-moon ‘disturbed’ about Darfur displacement in 2013 (22 May 2013)UNHCR ‘in race against time’ to deliver aid to Sudanese refugees in Chad (17 May 2013)Former Darfur rebels threaten to leave government (26 April 2013)