Sudan rejected on Thursday world pressure, led by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, for international intervention in the war-torn western region of Darfur, insisting it is taking its own steps to rein in government-sponsored militias accused of ethnic cleansing.
The rejection came as diplomats in neighbouring Chad said members of the Sudanese government and rebels from Darfur have agreed on how to handle humanitarian issues arising from the 14-month war in the area, and are likely soon to agree a ceasefire.
In Khartoum, Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail said: ”We are not in need of foreign forces in Darfur.
”All we want from the international community is more humanitarian aid in addition to the government’s commitment,” he said.
In a speech Wednesday marking the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, Annan called on the international community to consider military intervention in Darfur if Sudan continues to deny access to the region where at least 10 000 people have died in fighting over the past year, according to UN figures.
”It is vital that international humanitarian workers and human rights experts be given full access to the region, and to the victims, without further delay,” the UN chief said.
”If that is denied, the international community must be prepared to take swift and appropriate action. By ‘action’ in such situations, I mean a continuum of steps, which may include military action.”
US President George Bush on Wednesday urged the Khartoum government to take immediate action to end ”atrocities” in Darfur, saying fighting there ”has opened a new chapter of tragedy in Sudan’s troubled history”.
”The Sudanese government must immediately stop local militias from committing atrocities against the local population and must provide unrestricted access to humanitarian aid agencies. I condemn these atrocities, which are displacing hundreds of thousands of civilians.”
In a statement issued in Texas, Bush said he had expressed his concern directly to Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir.
Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham on Wednesday urged Sudan to take ”immediate action” to defuse the conflict.
The Sudanese foreign minister said the government has set up a Cabinet committee to ensure aid reached the people of Darfur and rein in the pro-government Arab militias, who have been accused of launching a reign of terror against the region’s indigenous non-Arab minorities.
The committee, comprising the ministers for defence, interior, foreign affairs, finance, humanitarian affairs and agriculture, has been charged with ”rounding up and controlling” any armed group other than the army that tries to harm civilians or obstruct relief operations, Ismail said.
The committee will also ensure that supply routes for humanitarian aid are kept open and shelter made available to the displaced before the advent of the rains in July, he told reporters.
An estimated 110 000 people have taken refuge in neighbouring Chad, while as many as a million people have been displaced within Sudan, according to the UN.
Ismail said the ministerial committee is due to travel to Darfur later on Thursday.
A UN fact-finding mission has been working in the refugee camps in Chad but was denied permission by Khartoum to visit Darfur itself.
The Sudan Liberation Movement and the Movement for Justice and Equality, two groups mainly drawn from the indigenous Fur, Zaghawa and Maasalit minorities, launched an armed rebellion early last year in protest at the depredations of the Arab militias and alleged discrmination by Khartoum.
Delegations of the two groups and Khartoum’s negotiators were locked on Thursday in closed-door talks in the Chadian capital, Ndjamena, discussing a plan to sign a renewable 45-day ceasefire, said a diplomat on condition of anonymity.
First signs of progress in efforts by Chad to mediate a settlement came when the two sides began direct talks on Tuesday.
Diplomats close to the talks gave no details of what had been agreed on the humanitarian front, but a source, who asked not to be further identified, said a ceasefire deal had stalled on secondary issues.
The Khartoum delegation had rejected any reference to the government-sponsored Janjaweed militias in the proposed agreement, while the rebels had made it a precondition of any deal, the source said.
UN officials and aid organisations accuse the Janjaweed of carrying out ”ethnic cleansing” of Darfur’s non-Arab ethnic groups and ”atrocities” against civilians. — Sapa-AFP