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| February 4, 2009 |
Muhajeria
February 3, 2009 Sudan TribuneTaking into consideration the safety of civilians in the disputed Muhageriya, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) has offered to pull out its troops from the southern Darfur town. Ahmed Hussein Adam, the official spokesperson of the rebel movement, said they are ready to withdraw their troops from Muhageriya provided the town is declared a demilitarized zone under the control of the hybrid peacekeeping force.
He added the Sudanese army or the former rebels led by Minni Minniawi should remain away from the town. But the Sudanese government has immediately rejected the offer saying there is "no room for conditions from JEM."
A bloodbath could be hours away. Please call 1800-genocide. Ask for the White House. Tell President Obama we cannot stand by and cannot watch as thousands more civilians are killed.
Muhajeria was previously ravaged by Khartoum's forces in October 2007.
Here's how The New York Times (October 17, 2007) described what took
place then: "[W]itnesses said Sudanese government troops and their
allied militias had killed more than 30 civilians, slitting the throats
of several men praying at a mosque and shooting a 5-year-old boy in the
back as he tried to run away. ... [T]wo columns of uniformed government
troops, along with dozens of militiamen not in uniform, surrounded the
town around noon on Oct. 8 and stormed the market." Muhajeria
subsequently came under the erratic and often tyrannical control of the
forces of Minni Minawi, a one-time rebel leader who switched sides in
May 2006, signing the Darfur Peace Agreement and allying himself with
the Khartoum regime. Several weeks ago, the Justice and Equality
Movement--a rebel group that did not sign the agreement and continues to
fight Khartoum and its Arab militia allies--seized control of the town
from Minawi's forces. The regime regards this as an unacceptable
military setback, and is apparently now laying the groundwork for an
assault on the town.