Sudanese bid for more time to disarm militias
By William Wallis
CAIRO, Aug 10, 2004 (Financial Times) — The Sudanese government expects to make enough progress towards disarming militias accused of war crimes in Darfur to avert United Nations measures equivalent to sanctions, Sudan’s foreign minister said on Monday.
But Ali Osman Taha, Sudan’s vice president, said in an interview with the BBC that “logistical problems” would make it impossible to abide by the letter of a UN Security Council resolution, which gave the Khartoum government until the end of the month to carry out the disarmament.
“Janjaweed and other militias will be disarmed. This is a plan that the government has already embarked into,” Mr Taha said. He added that this could take place “over the coming weeks but definitely not within the time limit of this August.”
The Sudan government appears to be gambling on winning leniency at the UN if it can prove it has taken some action towards ending human rights violations in Darfur. It has been buoyed by the 22-member Arab League, which came out in unanimous opposition to threats of sanctions and western military intervention during an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo on Sunday. The league also called on rebels fighting the Khartoum government to drop conditions for a return to the negotiating table.
After taking a more ambiguous position earlier in the year, Arab governments now appear to be rallying behind the Sudan government in light of popular hostility in the Arab world to threats of another western intervention in the region.
Speaking in Cairo on Monday, Mustafa Osman Ismail, Sudan’s foreign minister, welcomed what he said was the Arab League and African Union’s opposition to terms such as “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide” used by the US Congress and others to describe events in Darfur.
He said the UN wanted to see “substantive progress” in the restoration of security in Darfur. Time was short but “we think we can do it,” he said. He added a reminder that China and Pakistan abstained from voting on the latest UN resolution: “We expect that if there were any attempt to impose sanctions on Sudan, this number will increase.”
The UN resolution was passed on July 30 amid scattered violence and reports from UN relief workers and African Union observers in Darfur of isolated recent cases of rape and killings by Arab militias known colloquially as Janjaweed.
These follow a year in which Khartoum made common cause with the Janjaweed, precipitating a humanitarian crisis during a counter-offensive against non-Arab rebels. The UN estimates that up to 50,000 people may have died of hunger and violence in Darfur in the past 18 months.
The US, which put forward the UN resolution, argued Sudan was not doing enough to meet earlier pledges to neutralise the militias.