Sudan accuses Eritrea of supporting Darfur rebels, complains to UN Security Council

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Jan 06, 2004 (AP) — Sudan has complained to the U.N. Security Council about Eritrea, accusing its eastern neighbor of supporting rebels in Darfur province, where fighting has caused nearly 100,000 Sudanese to flee into exile, the official news agency reported Tuesday.

Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail wrote to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the chairman of the Security Council on Sunday, saying that Eritrea has been hostile and has disregarded “the principles of good neighborliness, peaceful coexistence and cordial relations,” the Sudan News Agency said.

Referring to insurgents in the western province of Darfur, Ismail said: “The Eritrean support has enabled these outlaw groups to assault, intimidate and loot the properties of the civilians in east and west Sudan as well as setting their villages ablaze and preventing the flow of relief and humanitarian aid to the needy people in Darfur region.”

He accused the government of President Asias Afwerki of providing “incitement, support and funding to the outlaws in Darfur region.”

Expanding on government accusations made in December, Ismail said the Eritreans were harboring Darfur rebels and providing them with training camps and arms.

Sudan’s government has “strong evidence on Eritrea’s involvement in Darfur incidents,” Ismail wrote.

The foreign minister asked the Security Council to take steps to maintain international peace and security.

Eritrean presidential spokesman Yemane Gebremeskel denied that his country supported any Sudanese rebels.

“I do not think these baseless accusations deserve a response, but the simple response is it’s a total fabrication,” Yemane told The Associated Press.

“From the beginning of 1993 (when Eritrea gained independence) we have complained to the Security Council about Sudan’s active and substantiated support to fundamentalists and terrorists in Eritrea,” he said.

The Darfur rebels, who call themselves the Sudan Liberation Army, have been fighting Sudanese government troops and government-backed militias since early 2003, demanding a greater share in power and better services for the region, as well as military control.

After peace negotiations broke down in December, the Sudanese government seems to have abandoned dialogue and decided to crush the rebels by force. President Omar el-Bashir recently said his priority is terminating the rebellion.

According the United Nations, about 670,000 people have fled to other parts of Sudan to escape the Darfur fighting, and 95,000 more are believed to have crossed into neighboring Chad since the fighting began in February 2003.

In Geneva, Ron Redmond, spokesman for the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, said 30,000 Sudanese fled to Chad in December alone, many arriving on foot and traveling at night to avoid attacks by militias who have looted villages and stolen livestock.

Redmond told reporters that the refugees are scattered in dozens of makeshift camps along a 600-kilometer (373-mile) stretch of remote, insecure borderland between Sudan and Chad.

“They are subjected to periodic raids by bandits and marauding militias from across the border, and many are in dire need of assistance,” he said.

UNHCR and other relief agencies have distributed food in the border area, but their work is hampered by security problems. Later this month, UNHCR plans to begin moving the refugees to camps farther inside Chad, away from the volatile border area, Redmond said.

Sudan’s complaint to the Security Council comes as the government is enjoying success in trying to resolve its other conflict — a 20-year-old civil war with the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army in the south. On Monday, government and SPLA negotiators in Kenya said they had agreed on a division of the country’s wealth and oil resources, resolving a major obstacle in the long running peace talks.