The West targeting Sudan because of its wealth : Sudanese ruling party

KHARTOUM, July 24, 2004 (Sudan tribune) — The secretary-general of the ruling National Congress (NC), Ibrahim Ahmad Omar, said Western circles were targeting Sudan because of its wealth, values and humanity, an issue which calls on all Sudanese people to wake up and face this challenge.

The NC’s secretary-general has affirmed Sudan’s unity, people and government, in condemning the lies and allegations which are being circulated by some Western bodies about the existence of ethnic cleansing and genocide in Darfur.

In a press conference he held today at the party’s HQ, he said Sudan objects to Darfur becoming a new front for foreign interference.

Omar said the government had denounced violence and resorted to a political and peaceful solution to the Darfur problem. He pointed out, in this regard, the government’s approach in the framework of which it went for the latest Addis Ababa talks.

He at the same time noted the conditions which were issued by armed groups from Darfur and which led to the collapse of the talks.

He said the NC was striving to hold consultations with all political parties to foil the media attacks which are being made by the Western quarters.

The United Nations estimates that at least 30,000 people have been killed and more than a million displaced, many of them driven from their homes by the Janjaweed.

It has declared the situation in Darfur the world’s worst humanitarian crisis but has not called it a genocide, which would force it to take action.

* Material from the BBC Monitoring Service was used in this news report