Movement for Justice and Equality
The Movement for Justice and Equality (abbreviated JEM from English Justice and Equality Movement ) is a rebel group involved in the Darfur conflict in Darfur and in eastern Chad . Their leader was Khalil Ibrahim until his death on December 24, 2011 . His brother Jibril Ibrahim was elected successor in January 2012.
Emergence
The JEM was founded around 1999 as an opposition movement against the government of Omar al-Bashir in Khartoum , when the latter expelled the National Islamic Front (NIF) of Hasan at-Turabi from the government. Khalil Ibrahim is considered a partisan of Turabi. Members of this Islamist group Turabis from Darfur published the kitab al-aswad , English The Black Book: Imbalance of Power and Wealth in the Sudan (" Black Book: Imbalance of Power and Wealth in Sudan"), which describes the economic and political oppression of the Population of Darfur as an issue and distributed as anti-government propaganda.
The JEM's armed struggle began with attacks in Darfur in March 2003, which took place at the same time as raids by the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA). The JEM was first mentioned in the Western press on March 6th. AFP cited an interview by Al-Hayat in which Khalil Ibrahim declared that he was fighting not for independence but for participation in the government in Darfur.
The ideological basis of these rebel groups is the fight against the economic neglect and political oppression of the Darfur region, which the government in Khartoum is accused of. Since then, the government has been taking action against the rebel groups with the official armed forces of the Sudan People's Armed Forces , paramilitary troops and with the help of the Janjawid militias.
In June 2006 the establishment of the joint National Redemption Front (NRF) was announced by the JEM, one of the two SLA factions and the Sudan Federal Democratic Alliance (SFDA). The NRF rejected the peace agreement negotiated in Abuja in May 2006 . The Abuja Agreement was only signed by the Minni Arcua Minnawi's SLA faction . Common goals of the NRF that go beyond general declarations of intent have not yet been specified. After 2006, this alliance hardly appeared in press releases and - although militarily successful - broke up in 2007 due to internal disputes.
Assault on Omdurman in May 2008
Several hundred JEM fighters had managed, obviously unrecognized, to advance from Darfur around 500 kilometers to Omdurman , opposite the capital , where they fought with government troops on May 11, 2008 and in the following days. It was the first time the Darfur war had been fought outside the region. The government officially reported 200 deaths. The JEM said that the aim of the action was to overthrow the government in Khartoum. An act of revenge by the Chad- backed JEM against the Sudanese government is suspected, which in turn is supposed to support Chadian rebels. The Sudanese foreign minister accused the government of Chad of involvement. After the attack, the Sudanese police arrested more than 300 allegedly involved persons, among them for a few hours the sharpest critic of the government, Hasan at-Turabi , who is also suspected of supporting the JEM. Turabi expressed understanding for the attack.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Khalid Abdelaziz, Alexander Dziadosz: Darfur's strongest rebel group elects new chief. Reuters, January 26, 2012
- ^ The kitab al-aswad (“The Black Book”) and the JEM. POOT Resources, August 2008 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 77 kB)
- ^ Chronology of Reporting on Events Concerning the Conflict in Darfur, Sudan. Sudan Open Archive, February 15, 2007 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF file; 20.7 MB)
- ^ Founding Declaration of Darfur's National Redemption Front. Sudan Tribune, June 30, 2006
- ↑ Kurt Pelda : JEM and a colonel who cannot read. NZZ Online, November 16, 2007.
- ↑ Kurt Pelda: Darfur rebels strike in Khartoum. NZZ Online, May 13, 2008
- ↑ Sudan wants rebels on terror list. BBC, May 14, 2008
- ↑ Sudan opposition head: rebel assault may spur more violence. International Herald Tribune, May 18, 2008
