Posted by George on March 15, 2003, 2:56:30 CAIRO, March 14 (AFP) -- Rebels in Sudan's western Darfur region announced Friday that they had adopted a new name, and a charter calling for the replacement of Khartoum's Islamic government with a "united democratic" regime. "Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A), that is the name we are going to adopt from today, instead of Darfur Liberation Front (DLF)," said the group's secretary general Minni Arkou Minnawi, in a statement received by AFP in Cairo. Minnawi separately published a "political declaration" saying that "the objective of the SLM/A is to create a united democratic Sudan" and that "armed struggle is one of our means to achieve our legitimate objective." "Sudan's unity must therefore ultimately be based on the right to self-determination and the free will of the various peoples of Sudan ... on an economy and a political system that address the uneven development and marginalisation that have plagued the country since independence," it said. Darfur, a mainly-Muslim region composed of Arab and African tribes, has suffered from "marginalisation, racial discrimination, exclusion and ... policies amounting to ethnic cleansing" against African tribes, it added. The declaration called for a separation of state and religion, a principle opposed by the regime of President Omar al-Beshir. The SLM/A also called for "achieving an understanding with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and other forces in order to remove the dictatorial regime." The NDA in an umbrella grouping of the southern Christian and animist rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and northern Muslim Arab opposition groups. Minnawi announced earlier Friday the "recapture" of the town of Gulu, capital of Jebel Marrah province in the Darfur region, "after a fierce battle" early Thursday. He claimed that Khartoum's forces "left 195 bodies in the battlefield. The rest of 450 soldiers in the Gulu garrison fled in disarray." The Darfur rebels unveiled their existence in late February with the capture of Gulu, but Khartoum's forces retook the town in early March. Sudan's Information Minister al-Zahawi Ibrahim Malek said on Monday that tribes in neighboring Chad were assisting the Darfur rebels. Darfur is one of the most arid and isolated regions in Sudan, Africa's largest country. It has witnessed tribal clashes and bandit raids for many years, but no armed political faction was reported active there until February.
Darfur rebels adopt charter to topple regime, create "democratic Sudan"
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