Sudan’s FM insists his country prosecuting militias responsible for Darfur killings
By TOBY STERLING, Associated Press Writer
THE HAGUE, Netherlands, July 24, 2004 (AP) — Sudan’s foreign minister insisted his country would prosecute Arab militias responsible for killings in the troubled Darfur region, but again denied Saturday that the attacks amounted to genocide.
Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail met Saturday with his Dutch counterpart, Ben Bot, a day after meeting with European Union officials in Brussels to discuss Darfur, where at least 30,000 have died in attacks by the militiamen known as Janjaweed.
“We’ve arrested 100 of the Janjaweed leaders and will put them in court,” Ismail said in the Netherlands, which now holds the rotating EU presidency.
The 15-month conflict between Darfur’s black Africans, mostly farmers, and pro-government Arab militias has displaced more than 1 million people and left 2.2 million in desperate need of food and medicine.
Bot described Saturday’s talks as “very good, very constructive,” ahead of a planned meeting of EU foreign affairs ministers in Brussels on Monday.
The EU wants a political solution to the crisis, and has urged rebel groups, who walked out of peace talks last week to return to the negotiating table. The rebels have insisted the government honor the terms of previous peace agreements before beginning new talks.
On Friday, after speaking with the EU’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana in Brussels, Ismail said his government had agreed with the United Nations, Britain, Germany and France that Sudan’s humanitarian situation was improving.
Solana, however, expressed “great concern” about continuing atrocities by pro-government Janjaweed, and called for Sudan’s government to disarm them “without delay” and arrest the leaders, his spokeswoman Cristina Gallach said.
Ismail again denied resolutions passed this week by U.S. Congress declaring the killings amounted to genocide, and said an African Union report was “very credible” in saying there was no genocide.
The African Union, meeting this month in Ethiopia, pressed Sudan to “neutralize” the Janjaweed and others involved in human rights violations in Darfur, but said they did not consider the atrocities to be genocide.
Inviting a second review by independent investigators or humanitarian workers, Ismail said “we are quite confident that a proper investigation will come to the same conclusion, that there is no genocide.”
The 25-nation EU, the United States and humanitarian groups have accused the Sudanese government of backing the militias a claim it denies.
Bot said that, while in Brussels on Monday, he would push for the EU ministers to discuss reconstruction aid for Darfur “so that we can create the situation where refugees can make a livelihood and feel secure when they return.”
The Netherlands granted A?27 million (US153 million) for aid to Darfur, and earlier this month urged other EU countries to do the same, the Foreign Ministry said Saturday.
Ismail “assured me that Sudan is fully committed to make it’s best efforts to change the situation,” Bot said. “I told him that it’s almost certain the international community will take further measures if this situation does not improve.”