Sudan plays down death toll from Darfur conflict
CAIRO, Aug 9 (AFP) — Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail Monday strongly disputed UN figures on the number of dead in Sudan’s war-torn western region of Darfur, saying they were up to 10 times too high.
Ismail told a news conference in Cairo that according to government estimates the 17-month conflict between Khartoum’s forces and its Arab militia allies and two main rebel groups in the region had cost no more than 5,000 lives.
Of these, 486 were policemen, Ismail asserted.
Between 30,000 and 50,000 people have died as a result of the conflict, with a further 1.2 million displaced from their homes and more than 130,000 forced to flee into neighboring Chad, according to UN figures.
Ismail argued that these figures were out of proportion and challenged the UN to “tell us their names or show us their graves” of those claimed to have died.
The main rebel groups fighting in Darfur, the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement, have suggested that casualty figures could be higher than the UN estimates and claimed there were mass graves in the region.
Ismail said government forces moved into Darfur to assert control, protect the people and head off a civil war, which had threatened to engulf the region after the rebels took up arms and began “terrorizing” the people.
“There is a humanitarian, security and political problem in Darfur as a result of the war,” added Ismail, denying that the situation amounted to “ethnic cleansing or genocide” of black African communities by the Arab-dominated Khartoum government, as suggested by certain reports.
He insisted that there was no need for an international peacekeeping force in the region, saying deploying troops in Darfur could cause friction with the local populations and the Sudanese military.
“We do not have any problem with any number of observers or forces to protect them,” the Sudanese minister said.
Observers could actually “contribute to confidence-building,” he added.
Ismail confirmed Monday that Khartoum would send a delegation to Abuja in Nigeria for negotiations with the rebels sponsored by the African Union but stressed it would not accept any preconditions.
“We welcome the announcement about the resumption of the negotiations and we will participate at the time and place stated,” he said.
The African Union said earlier that peace talks would take place in the Nigerian capital on August 23.
“We do not have any preconditions and we will not accept any preconditions,” Ismail said.
An earlier AU effort to persuade the rebels and government to engage in direct political negotiations failed in mid-July when the two rebel groups insisted they would not participate in talks until Khartoum demilitarized Darfur and prosecuted alleged war criminals there.
On Sunday, Ismail told a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo that was convened to discuss the Darfur crisis that the talks also collapsed because the rebels sent low-ranking officials with a limited mandate.
The Sudanese foreign minister said his government would send a high-level team to the talks in Abuja and they would have the power to make crucial decisions without referring matters to Khartoum.