"We will never surrender our guns to Khartoum unless it compensates us and if the SPLA tries to disarm us (by force) we will fight them," says Khawala Abdullah Ramadhan, a member of the Fursan militia.

Its members still roam Western Bahr-el-Ghazal state. They mostly supported Khartoum during its 21-year war with the ex-rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLA), whose political wing now rules the semi-autonomous south.

Although its history is shrouded in a fog of truths and half-truths, its members say the "cavalry" or "knights" movement was formed in the mid-1980s, but only became prominent in 1991, when it ended an SPLA incursion into Darfur.

"We annihilated the SPLA when they attempted to enter Darfur," bragged one Fursan member calling himself Ahmed. "Now the government has forgotten all that."

A legacy of the civil wars that have raged in Sudan for all but 10 years of its independence, there are a maze of militias in the country, dogged by tribal animosity, shifting loyalties and a history of conflict.

Based in Raga, a dusty outpost in Western Bahr-el-Ghazal, the Fursans hit hard times when the north-south civil war ended in a 2005 peace accord and the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) rewarded only the militia's 25 top commanders.

The foot soldiers -- who got nothing -- have refused to disband and surrender their weapons unless Khartoum pays them "pensions" for years in service to the government.

"We want the government to compensate us because we fought alongside its troops," said Ibrahim Adam Isaak, a 47-year-old low-ranking commander.

"The government knows 'no money, no weapons'," he told a group of reporters and aid workers at the Fursan operations base in Raga.

-- 'Shedding blood was our business' --

---------------------------------------

His comrade Said Mohamed Rayer warned of bloodshed if the SPLA makes good on its threat to disarm the militia, many of whom have set up small businesses such as groceries, but kept their guns.

"We cannot talk about war because the war is finished, but if the SPLA dares to disarm us, we get to fight them. We have spent our lifetime in war and shedding blood was our business," he warned, flashing a smile.

Under the 2005 peace agreement, militia groups in southern Sudan should have disbanded by July 2006, then either integrated into the regular Sudanese army or the former-rebel SPLA.

But the Fursans, like many other militia in oil-rich central Sudan, have refused outright calls from the semi-autonomous south to respect the spirit of the shaky accord.

They complain that Khartoum used to send them money during the war, but stopped and instead promised them jobs in the northern security services, a pledge that never materialised.

"We will never join the SPLA, we'd rather fight against them" Rayer warned.

The SPLA dismisses the threats.

"These militias are just jobless, because there is no war for them to fight. That is why they are sabre-rattling," said Doung Deng, an SPLA officer.

Last April, 25 Fursan commanders and 2,000 fighters tricked the SPLA into believing they had switched allegiance into the southern force, and were paid five million old dinars (25,000 dollars) before shifting back, a UN official said.

"They are such fluid characters," the official added.

Lieutenant Colonel Babakir Mohamed, a commander in a joint unit made up of Khartoum and SPLA troops, confirmed that some Fursan commanders had been absorbed into the Sudanese army, but that several others were still out there.

"The government is waiting for money it was promised by donors to compensate them, which has not been delivered," said Mohamed.

A German human rights group monitoring the peace deal said the militia were violating the deal and undermining security.

"This is a violation of the accord and we call upon the government to ensure that its militias are disbanded," said Klaus Stieglitz, a rights expert with the Germany-based Sign of Hope.

Khartoum and the SPLA have been bickering over the non-implementation of the accord that ended Africa's most intricate war, in which at least 1.5 million people were killed and four million more displaced.

The 1983-2005 war erupted when non-Muslim southerners demanded an equal share of national development from Arab rulers, in a conflict that was worsened by oil and religion.

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