Sudanese president says Darfur has abandoned war, ushered in peace
KHARTOUM, April 27 (AFP) — President Omar al-Beshir said Tuesday that the Darfur region of western Sudan had abandoned war and ushered in peace, on a one-day visit to North Darfur state which has been ravaged by civil war.
Speaking to a rally in Al-Fasher, on his first visit to the region for more than a year, Beshir said Darfur had abandoned war and he pledged to continue work on development projects.
“We have entered a new state of peace, security and tranquility … We have bidden farewell to (military) operations, war and insecurity,” he said in the speech also broadcast on official radio.
“Let’s join hands and embark on development projects,” said Beshir, pledging to resume work on a bridge over the Khur Assum river, water projects and other deals interrupted by the deadly conflict.
He also congratulated the army, police, security services and the people of Darfur for “frustrating the plots of the conspirators.”
Beshir was scheduled to meet a Sudanese government delegation negotiating with the rebels from the region bordering on Chad, officials said earlier.
Khartoum newspapers said Beshir was also to open a health complex, offices for state radio and television, and a hall for social development.
A total of 225 development projects are planned for the Darfur region, Izz al-Dinn al-Sayyed, an official preparing for a conference on development and coexistence in Darfur in mid-May, was quoted as saying.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell and the European Union have put pressure on Sudan to open up Darfur to international relief workers and move speedily to finalize a long-expected but much-delayed peace agreement with southern rebels.
The United Nations has called the Darfur conflict the world’s worst current humanitarian crisis and rights groups have said atrocities are still being committed by government-backed militias despite a ceasefire deal reached earlier this month.
The war is estimated by the United Nations to have claimed at least 10,000 lives, uprooted a million people from their homes to other parts of Sudan, and driven more than 100,000 others to seek shelter across the Chadian border.
On another front, peace talks between Khartoum and the southern Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in Kenya are deadlocked.
The deadlock is centred on whether Islamic law would apply in Khartoum during an envisaged six-year transition period, when the city will serve as the joint capital for an interim administration before a referendum on self-determination for the south.