Sudan says ‘a million soldiers’ could not pacify Darfur
Dec 14, 2006 (GENEVA) — An international force could not bring peace to the strife-torn Sudanese region of Darfur even if it comprised one million soldiers, as long as rebel groups refuse to sign a peace agreement with the government, a Sudanese minister has warned in Geneva.
“Even if you sent a million soldiers to Darfur, that would not solve the problem,” Sudan’s minister for international cooperation, Al Tigani Salih Fedail, told journalists Thursday.
“That’s not the issue. You only have to look at the examples of Afghanistan and Iraq,” he said.
On May 5 the Sudanese government signed a peace deal in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, with one of the rebel groups fighting in Darfur. The two other rebel groups declined to sign, saying the agreement did not meet all their demands.
“The problem is political. We have to totally respect the agreement and stop those who seek to sabotage it,” the minister said.
Sudan has come under heavy international criticism for allegedly supporting the Arab Janjaweed militia, who are accused of genocidal attacks on civilians, targeting people of black African origin.
The minister insisted the government was seeking to disarm the Janjaweed but said it was a difficult task.
“Without the implementation of the (peace) agreement, it is very difficult to disarm people,” he said.
The minister was in Geneva for the launch of the UN Work Plan for Sudan for 2007, which is targeting 1.8 billion dollars (1.4 billion euros) to fund humanitarian, recovery and development projects in the country.
This represents nearly half of the total 3.7 billion dollars requested by the Secretary General for humanitarian assistance worldwide in 2007, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement.
The Secretary General’s deputy special representative, Manuel Aranda da Silva, said it was vital that the UN remained committed to bringing peace and stability to the region.
“The alternative of continuing to fight for peace in Sudan is so dramatic that it would be a total disaster for the Sudanese but also for the region and Africa as a whole,” da Silva said.
He noted that the worsening security situation in the region, and particularly an increase in banditism, had curtailed the effectiveness of aid deliveries.
International aid only reached 62 percent of the nearly 4 million people who depend on it in November 2006, down from 80 percent for the whole of 2005, he said.
Most armed attacks on aid convoys were carried out by rebels, but it was unacceptable that such attacks were also committed by men in uniform in government-controlled areas, the UN official said.
“We cannot operate like that forever,” he warned.
The UN estimates that some 200,000 people have died as a result of the conflict over the last four years, with two million forced to flee their homes.
(AFP)