UN council pushes Sudan to disarm Darfur militias

By Irwin Arieff

UNITED NATIONS, May 26 (Reuters) – The Sudan government must respect its commitments to disarm the Arab militias that are driving black Africans out of Sudan’s western Darfur region, the U.N. Security Council said on Tuesday.

The council also pressed the government to provide humanitarian workers with full access to the region so they can help the hundreds of thousands of people at risk in what U.N. officials say is one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

Sudan said last week it would ease aid workers’ travel to Darfur by temporarily lifting the need for travel permits.

But a statement adopted unanimously by the 15-nation U.N. body said the council was “seriously concerned about continued logistical impediments prohibiting a rapid response in the face of a stark and mounting crisis” which it warned was certain to worsen with the imminent onset of the rainy season.

Aid officials have complained that bureaucratic delays and time limits on visas and travel permits to the remote region bordering Chad have restricted their access to nearly 1 million people driven from their homes by the fighting in Darfur.

Rebels took up arms in Darfur in February last year, accusing the Khartoum government of neglecting the area and arming Arab forces known as Janjaweed militias to loot and burn the villages of ethnic Africans.

Khartoum rejects the charges and accuses the rebel forces of attacking state buildings, killing state workers and kidnapping children as fighters.

The council statement, drafted by the United States, masked a behind-the-scenes battle over whether the Darfur crisis would be formally added to the council agenda, diplomats said.

Sudan, backed by Arab and African governments and Russia, has lobbied hard to prevent the council from putting it on the agenda, which would put it in a stronger position to delve into its internal affairs.

But private aid groups met privately with council members on Monday to press it to take a higher profile on the crisis.

Jan Egeland, the U.N. emergency relief coordinator, told the council in early April that the Janjaweed militias were conducting an organized campaign of ethnic cleansing in Darfur and accused the government of doing little to stop it.

But the council itself has so far declined to point a finger of blame at Khartoum or issue demands, instead pressing it only to fulfill commitments it had itself made.