ReliefWeb

Khartoum (13 Jan .) - A splinter group calling itself the corrected Justice and Equality Movement announced at a press conference in Khartoum its allegiance to the Doha Document for Peace.

The group includes Zakaria Abbas, Omar Karma, Hamid Yusef El Mahil, Salih El Tom Abbas, and Hamad Musabil.

Yusuf Muhair, who was the secretary of legal affairs for the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) said in an interview with Radio Dabanga that the new group agreed with the conditions set out in the Doha Document for Peace unlike JEM, and were convinced the agreement met all the demands of the people of Darfur.

He said the group had taken control of the villages of Sundu, Jebel Al Jou and Kono and after extensive consultations decided to sign up to the Doha peace agreement signed by the Sudanese government.

Yusuf Muhair also revealed other reasons for the division from JEM. He said JEM arrested 12 leaders of the movement, and placed them in a prison in South Sudan controlled by the Sudan People's Liberation Movement where some of them have been tortured for the past three months and remain there today.

The detained include Ali Wafi, Tijani Tahir Kurshum, Abu Zama Tiir, Arko Suleiman Dahia, Babiker Abu Bakr Hassan Hamadayn, Mahmood Bahr Hamadaya, Fudallah Issa, Ahmed El najayd, Dr El Alim Kurshum along with other soldiers from JEM.

Muhair said the group had made contact with Ibrahim Gambari, the head of the hybrid AU/UN Mission in Darfur, the Qatari mediation team and the Red Cross, and that these parties had promised to help the splinter group become part of the Doha agreement. He appealed for human rights organizations to act urgently to save the detainees.

JEM's spokeman Jibril Adam Bilal, acknowledged to Radio Dabanga that there is a group being investigated, after a statement released three months ago by Muhammad Bahr, once deputy to late JEM leader Khalil Ibrahim, said the 12 leaders were following his move to join the Doha peace agreement.

Bilal denied accusations of people being detained, imprisoned or tortured in South Sudan, but said the 12 men were in fact in Darfur, where they are awaiting the outcome of an investigation to decide whether they have a relationship with Muhammad Bahr. Following trial, the court will decide whether they are released or convicted.

The spokesman also said to Radio Dabanga although the splinter group have chosen to use JEM's name, they have no relation to JEM. They left the movement a long time ago and are related to Mohammad Bahr and Musa Hilal, leader of the government sponsored Janjaweed militia.

He said JEM's position remains in opposition to the Doha peace agreement as is the position of the Sudan Revolutionary Front which aims to overthrow the regime in Khartoum.