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Darfur Rebels Support Salva Kiir's Presidency
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Sep 3, 2008 - 6:38:22 AM

Darfur Rebels Support Salva Kiir's Presidency

The Monitor (Kampala)

Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), a rebel force fighting Field Mashal Omar Bashir's government, have said they will support Salva Kiir, in the forthcoming presidential polls.

The SLM head of wealth sharing commission, Mr Abaker Mohamed Abuelbashar, said at a press conference in Kampala on Monday, Mr Kiir, the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) leader, has gained experience to run Sudan. Mr Abuelbashar is an adviser to the SLM rebel chief, Mr Minni Minawi

"SPLM is our strategic ally. We are also in the same boat of political vision of new Sudan," Mr Abuelbashar, who is on a fact-finding mission in Uganda said. "We would like to see Salva Kiir as president of Sudan through an election," he added.

Sudan's elections, scheduled to take place by July 2009, are a major milestone of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which Gen. Bashir's government signed with SPLM. Mr Kiir, the Southern Sudanese leader, was sworn in as Sudan's first vice president in Khartoum, on August 11, 2005.

Mr Abuelbashar supported the International Criminal Court (ICC) indictment against Gen. Bashir saying he deserved it for atrocities he allegedly committed in Darfur, where an estimated 300,000 people are reported to have died and over two million displaced.

The rebel leader condemned the killing of the Ugandan police officer, Julius Osega, in July while on a peace keeping mission in Darfur. Mr Abuelbashar said, they (rebels) were in Uganda because Uganda has publicly declared it supports the Darfur rebel political cause. "We feel the people of Uganda and the government is supporting us politically," he said.

President Museveni during the Organisation of Islamic Conference in Kampala in June faulted international inaction on Darfur. "It is hypocritical to concentrate on the Palestine crisis and pay little attention on the African conflicts involving OIC member states like in Darfur," he said.

The conflict in Darfur broke out when ethnic minority rebels took up arms against Khartoum and state-backed Arab militias often called Janjaweed, fighting for resources and power in one of the most remote and deprived places on earth.