For Khartoum President Omer Hassan Ahmed el Beshir was present but demonstrating that the National Islamic Front civilians still rule the signatory was the more powerful Vice-President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha...
A fortnight after the then Secretary of State Colin Powell had declared the Darfur massacres 'genocide' on 9 September senior Sudan official Charles Snyder was telling NIF strongman Ali Osman Mohamed Taha that normalisation was in sight...
It has tried to spin the Darfur crisis as primarily an age-old conflict over resources; a civil war based on ethnicity; a 'normal' government response to an armed rebellion; a US attempt to divert attention from Iraq; a Zionist attempt to divert attention from Israel; an attempt by the Sudan People's Liberation Army as supporters of the Sudan Liberation Army to wriggle out of Naivasha; and an attempt by Hassan Abdullah el Turabi's NIF faction the Popular Congress (PC) to undermine and even overthrow Vice-President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha's National Congress (NC) faction...
These developments are limiting the NIF's zone of direct control to an axis between Khartoum and Port Sudan as the regime's core is drawn from a narrow band of three 'Arab' tribes: Ja'aleen (Federal Affairs Minister Nafi'e Ali Nafi' and former security chief El Tayeb Ibrahim Mohamed Kheir); Shaigya (First Vice President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha National Security and Intelligence Director Gen...
Gaoled for murder and theft he was released on instructions from Vice-President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha last year and given support to build up the militia units...
'When Ali Osman Mohamed Taha left Naivasha he said hewas going to deal with Darfur' sighed one source referring tothe NIF strongman...
Some consequences of the Naivasha deal are: The NIF (Vice-President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha's dominant National Congress faction) is strengthened...
He spent months in gaol or under house arrest and is widely believed in the area to have been released on the personal intervention of First Vice-President Ali Osman Mohamed Taha early in 2003 after SLA forces briefly captured the North Darfur capital El Fasher destroying five military aircraft and capturing several senior officers...
The Jeddah accord also signed by Vice-President and NIF supremo Ali Osman Mohamed Taha stipulated that the security apparatus should be left intact after any peace deal...
His long-time deputy Ali Osman Mohamed Taha is more purist but has not had much room for manoeuvre at Machakos where he personally took over the NIF team early last month...
