Sudan bowed to a five-point plan tabled by British Prime Minister Tony Blair during talks in Khartoum on Wednesday, which included accepting the free movement of 3 500 African Union troops as ceasefire monitors in Darfur province.
Blair also urged Sudan to return its troops to barracks and accept a deadline of December 31 for an agreement on devolution for the south of the country. He hopes this will serve as a model for peace in Darfur.
Blair held two hours of talks with Sudan’s President, Omar al-Bashir, during which he warned that the European Union and United States were willing to go to the United Nations to impose sanctions.
Privately, the prime minister believes the West will know by the end of the year whether Sudan is serious about honouring its commitments.
Attacks by militia linked to the Sudanese government have led to the displacement of 1,4-million people from Darfur and as many as 50 000 deaths. Khartoum says it has no control over the militias but Blair’s plan implicitly questions this.
He said on Wednesday: ”All of us have watched with concern and alarm at the death, disease and destruction that has come to Darfur. It is imperative that the people of Darfur realise the international community is determined to assist them in any way that it can.”
Blair won Bashir’s agreement to the expansion of the African Union’s force in Darfur to monitor the ceasefire negotiated in April between rebels and the government.
The force will, in Blair’s words, ensure ”that we get the correct information on what is happening, including ensuring the Sudanese government’s full cooperation”.
Sudan has also agreed to identify the location of its troops and those of any militia under its control.
Bashir also accepted that Sudanese troops would return to their barracks. This would allow them to be replaced by police as refugees returned to their homes.
Blair urged the Sudanese government to resolve the separate long-running dispute in the south by the end of the year.
He said such an agreement would have a knock-on effect on the dispute in Darfur and set the terms for a settlement in the western province.
”It will meet justifiable demands for greater devolution whilst making it clear the territorial integrity the country is preserved,” he said.
The Sudanese also agreed, as before, that humanitarian aid would be allowed to move through Darfur freely.
Blair ruled out the deployment of British troops but said that Britain was willing to provide logistical support to help expand the African Union’s military contingent.
He said: ”We don’t need these forces in several months time, we need them now. We will help them get there as quickly as possible.”
He characterised Khartoum’s commitments as ”the beginnings”.
”They have to follow it through in practice. We cannot have a situation in which thousands of people are dying,” he said.
Sudan’s foreign minister, Mustafa Osman Ismail, said his government had been put under no pressure from Blair.
”Rather he expressed his concern and Britain’s concern and the concern of the international community about the situation in Darfur,” Ismail said.
”And we share this same concern. The conditions in Darfur are not normal.”
Blair urged the rebels in Darfur to stick to their commitments. Khartoum has pointed to statements from UN officials claiming that the rebels have attacked Sudanese positions.
Blair has been struck by the vehemence of the American administration’s anger at the Sudanese government, partly based on the belief that it is black Africans who are being attacked by an Arab-led government.
His hopes for a comprehensive agreement by the end of the year may prove optimistic, because the insurrection in the south has lasted more than 20 years and the Sudanese have ruled out offering self-rule in Darfur.
Sanctions, still an option for the UN, would cripple the Sudanese government, which depends on oil production to keep the economy afloat. – Guardian Unlimited Â