President Janez Drnovsek failed to convince the Darfur rebel group Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) to sign up to the Darfur peace accord during the 30 and 31 May talks in Ljubljana.
Tuesday's talks were attended by chief JEM negotiator, Ahmed Tugod Lissan, member of the JEM leadership Abdullahi Osman El-Tom, and Ahmed Diraige, the chairman of the Federal Democratic Alliance and former Darfur governor, who were joined on Wednesday by JEM leader, Ibrahim Khalil. Drnovsek tried to convince JEM to sign up to the the early-May Abuja peace deal for Darfur, prior to 31 May at midnight, the deadline for the signature set by the international community.
Drnovsek stressed the importance of retaining the participation of all sides in the peace process. Khalil meanwhile thanked Drnovsek for his efforts, but said that the Abuja accord was unacceptable. Many big countries have backed it, not because it is good but because Darfur has become a playground for conflicting political and economic interests, Khalil added. In an interview to the public broadcaster TV Slovenija on 1 June, Khalil also mentioned for the first time a possibility of his group seeking independence for the western Sudanese region. Drnovsek briefed about the talks Austrian Ambassador to Slovenia Valentin Inzko, a representative of the country which currently chairs over the EU, as well as the embassies of member countries of the UN Security Council in Slovenia and of the countries active in the Darfur peace process.
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