الجزيرة تصف تصريح مسؤل أمنى سودانى بالسخف والصبيانية

Thursday 5 June 2008

By Wasil Ali

June 4, 2008 (WASHINGTON) – The Al-Jazeera Arabic language television rejected claims made by the Sudanese government yesterday regarding the authenticity of an interview with a Darfur rebel leader.

The news channel based in Doha, Qatar announced this week that they have interviewed the head of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) Khalil Ibrahim in Darfur and aired portions of it in the last few days.

However senior Sudanese security officials speaking to the daily Al-Hayat newspaper published in London questioned the authenticity of the video saying that some of his guards shown were arrested during mopping-up activities by Sudanese army after the JEM offensive.

The officials said “it is likely that the interview was an old one” because Ibrahim was talking about the JEM conference held months ago.

But Ahmed Sheikh, editor-in-chief of Al-Jazeera television, speaking by phone to Sudan Tribune dismissed the statements made by the Sudanese security officials.

“It is ridiculous and childish. We are getting ready to air the tape. Why would we resurrect an old tape and broadcast it?” he said.

“We have interviewed Khalil [JEM leader] before. In this interview he spoke to us about the attack on Omdurman [Sudan capital twin city]. I don’t understand why they would say something like that” he added.

This is the first time Ibrahim appeared on TV since commanding a lightning attack on the Sudanese capital on May 10th that took the government and international community by surprise. However the Sudanese government managed to repulse the attack and accused Chad of backing JEM in its attempt.

The rebel leader has been on the run the days following the assault and the Sudanese government put a bounty of $250,000 for anyone contributing to the rebel leader’s arrest.

Sheikh said that Al-Jazeera is waiting for the tape to arrive before saying that he could not provide a specific date of when the full interview would be broadcasted.

Asked whether airing the interview may cause retaliation by Khartoum, Sheik said that he does not see that happening.

“Of course it is up to the Sudanese government but we expect their reaction to be rational” he said.

“We have a good working relationship with them [Sudan government]. We are also getting ready to launch a new program called ‘Eyes on Sudan’” he added.

The Sudanese government managed to arrest a number of senior JEM officials attempting to flee the country including Abdel Aziz el-Nur Ashr, who is believed to be the top military commander in the rebel group.

But Khartoum has failed to nab Ibrahim despite their earlier indications that they were getting close to rounding him up. The Sudanese defense minister said the army intercepted a telephone call between JEM leader and the Chadian authorities urging them to send a helicopter to airlift him from the border area.

(ST)
http://www.sudaneseonline.com/spip.php?article27413