Former Darfur rebels said today they have stopped implementing a peace deal until the government honours a promise to make Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) leader Minni Arcua Minnawi a special presidential assistant.
Mr Minnawi was supposed to arrive Khartoum today to kickstart the post-peace reconstruction of Darfur but refused to show up.
An SLA official told reporters waiting at the airport that the rebel leader would not come until he was appointed. "The government is not serious about this peace and Minni will not come to Khartoum until this decree is issued from the presidency appointing him as assistant to the president," said al-Fadil al-Tijani, the SLA deputy head of political affairs.
"All technical committees have stopped work," he said. The SLA was the only one out of three rebel groups to have signed the peace deal, although Mr Minnawi has said he does not trust the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) who signed the deal with him.
Thousands of police, army and rooftop snipers had been stationed in the expectation that protests would against the unpopular deal would greet Mr Minnawi's arrival.
But only a few hundred people, mostly school children and university students, had gathered in Khartoum's Green Square for the welcome. Most were annoyed Mr Minnawi has wasted their time.
"They've been saying for weeks now that he's coming tomorrow, next week and today all this and he's still not here?" said Noureddine Siddig Adam from North Darfur. "I won't bother to come next time."
Mr Minnawi's triumph of peace has been clouded by allegations that his troops tortured opponents and intensified attacks against other rebel groups who did not sign the accord. He denies the accusations but some attacks and torture have been confirmed by the African Union monitoring a shaky truce in the region.
Many Darfuris reject the deal signed by Mr Minnawi saying they want more compensation for war victims, political posts and crucially a rebel role in monitoring the disarmament of Arab militias known as Janjaweed blamed for much of the rape and pillage in Darfur.