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VELVET REVOLUTION
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DARFUR JEMS Picture by Jack Hill/The Times/ZUMA The Darfur conflict began in 2003 when mainly black African rebels started attacking police stations, military convoys and army outposts in response to ‘’racist policies of neglect’’ by the Arab-dominated Government. The Sudanese Army responded with massive air and land offensives on rebel strongholds. Still no match for the Sudanese Army, the JEM has rapidly become the dominant force among the splintered Darfur insurgency since an audacious attack by hundreds of its fighters on Omdurman in May 2008. A JEM delegation was invited to Washington for bilateral talks with US officials in January, and it was the only rebel group invited to the negotiations in Qatar - to the anger of rival rebel factions from the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA). Regarded by many foreign diplomats as the only feasible threat to Sudan’s military in Darfur, the rebels claim to have more than 800 land cruisers and more than 7,000 fighters operating in the desert in Darfur and threaten to bring down President al-Bashir’s regime unless the international community can resolve the current political and humanitarian crisis.
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