Khartoum ready to share power, resources with Darfur rebels
KHARTOUM, Aug 3 (AFP) — Sudan’s government announced it was ready to share power and resources with ethnic minority rebels in Darfur, as it came under mounting international pressure to resolve the humanitarian crisis sparked by its crackdown in the western region.
“We are ready to share power and resources in Darfur, we are ready for genuine federalism,” Information Minister Al-Zhawi Ibrahim Malik told AFP in an interview.
“We are ready to reach an agreement as we have done in resolving the conflict in southern Sudan,” said Malik in reference to Kenyan peace talks with the Sudan People’s Liberation Army aimed at ending the two-decade civil war with the southern rebel group.
Malik, a former mines minister, recalled that foreign firms had found oil in Darfur as well as copper and uranium deposits, creating a potentially strong resource basis for any autonomous administration in the region.
Khartoum is “ready to resume negotiations any time and any place in Africa,” following a breakdown of talks in Addis Adaba last month, he said.
“Let them come to the negotiating table,” he said, adding that the “United Nations and the African Union should force” the Darfur rebels if necessary.
Concerning UN demands for the disarmament of the state-sponsored Arab militias blamed for much of the suffering in Darfur, Malik said that under an agreement struck with Secretary General Kofi Annan last month it would be “carried out simultaneously with the confinement to camp of the rebels under the supervision of an African force”.
“As soon as this coordinated operation begins, we will resume contact with the (Arab) tribes to disarm them,” he said.
“We will be able to buy back from them the weapons they bought to defend themselves,” he said, warning that the government would deal with “extreme severity with those who refused to hand over their weapons”.
He urged donor governments to provide “financial aid to buy back the weapons and material and technical assistance for the disarmament process.”
The information minister insisted that conditions in Darfur were already improving, with some of the more than one million displaced already returning to their homes.
“Two camps, near Nyala and near Gineina, which respectively held 27,000 and 32,000 people, are now empty and other camps are 60 percent empty,” he claimed.
Malik said the government was prepared to deploy up to 12,000 police to Darfur if necessary to assure security for the returnees, more than doubling the current numbers.
He said 1,000 extra police would be deployed in the next few days, bringing numbers up to 6,000. The increase was in line with the agreement reached with Annan last month, the minister said.
Khartoum has come under massive diplomatic pressure to rein in the Arab militias accused of terrorizing the region’s indigenous minorities since the rebels launched their uprising in February 2003.
On Friday, the UN Security Council passed a resolution giving Sudan 30 days to rein in the militias or face international action.
Sudan accepted the resolution reluctantly, but said it was doing everything in its power to bring the situation under control.
“The police are pursuing armed groups in order to allow the displaced persons to return to their homes and to their normal lives,” said police Lieutenant General Said al-Hussein Osman.
Despite this, insecurity and human rights violations continue in the region, according to a representative of Annan who visited Darfur.
Francis Deng said Monday that “contrary to official statements about improvement of the security situation and the voluntary return of the displaced, I found a situation of persistent insecurity and human rights violations as the paramount concern of the displaced”.
His comments came as a European Union mission prepared to head to Darfur to determine how the EU can help implement a ceasefire in the region.
The World Food Programme complained Tuesday that donors had contributed barely a third of the 195 million dollars (162 million euros) needed to fly relief missions to Darfur.
Meanwhile, Eritrea denied accusations by Khartoum that it was fuelling the Darfur unrest by training rebel fighters.
“We do not support any group in Sudan, indeed we are working to ensure that there is peace in that country, because it would equally benefit us,” Information Minister Ali Abdu Ahmed told AFP by telephone from Asmara.