Sudan frees 57 Darfur rebels, including 50 sentenced to death

Sudan releases 57 Darfur rebels

KHARTOUM, Sudan — Sudan released 57 Darfur rebels on Wednesday, including 50 who had been sentenced to death, under a new truce agreement between the government and the most country’s powerful rebel group.

The leader of the most powerful rebel group promised that it, too, would release government soldiers it holds.

The Sudanese government and the rebel Justice and Equality Movement signed a truce agreement in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday after a year of negotiations meant to end seven years of devastating conflict that have killed some 300,000 and displaced more than 2.7 million in the western Darfur region.

The prisoner release was an important confidence-building measure.

Justice Minister Abdel-Basset Sabdarat told reporters that President Omar al-Bashir ordered the prisoners freed. JEM leader Khalil Ibrahim said his group would release government soldiers it holds.

The rebels had been imprisoned for their part in an attack on the Sudanese capital in 2008 that killed more than 200 people and caused heavy damage to public properties.

Sabdarat said those released represent 50 percent of the JEM members already tried and found guilty and that other prisoners would be released as the peace process progressed. Ibrahim’s brother, a senior leader in the group, was not among those released. The rebel movement had no immediate comment.

An unknown number of JEM supporters were detained after the attack on the capital, and more than 100 were sentenced to death in hastily convened trials. The release of all these prisoners was a major JEM demand from the outset of the talks a year ago.

The next challenge for peace mediators will be getting the dozens of other rebel splinter groups to join the process as arduous power and wealth-sharing talks begin, especially since JEM is primarily a military movement without the popular base of other rebel groups.

At a news conference in Doha, Ibrahim demanded that other rebel groups join the reconciliation process under its umbrella, rather than stake out their own, separate pacts with the government.

But the government’s representative to the talks, Amin Hassan Omar, said that was not for JEM to decide, and that the government would approach the other groups.

Al-Bashir said Tuesday that he hoped to see a full peace agreement by mid-March.

Previous cease-fires and partial peace deals have been short-lived.

But the recent end of the long-running animosity between Sudan and Chad could be the deciding factor in this agreement’s longevity. Chad and Sudan once accused each other of supporting the other’s rebels.

According to the agreement, Sudan has asked Chadian rebels who have taken refuge on its soil to lay down their arms and live as refugees in Sudan or return to Chad by March 21, Omar said.