UN envoy eases pressure after Khartoum irked by Darfur criticism
KHARTOUM, Aug 12 (AFP) — The United Nations’ envoy to Sudan tried to ease the pressure on Khartoum after a flurry of indictments of of the government’s failure to end the crisis in Darfur drew irate reactions from President Omar al-Beshir.
Jan Pronk, quoted Thursday in the Akhbar Al-Youm daily, said an action plan agreed to by Khartoum “does not set 30 days as a deadline but as a period which can be renewed and amended until all provisions” of a Security Council resolution are implemented.
The action plan for Darfur signed Tuesday by Pronk and Sudan’s Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail gave the authorities 30 days to create safe areas for civilians to search for food and cultivate their land without fear of attack.
The deal was already backtracking on a July 30 UN Security Council resolution giving Khartoum 30 days to crack down on the pro-government Arab Janjaweed militias, which are accused of committing atrocities against the black African population in Darfur.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s envoy on the ground was trying to ease the war of words which has been escalating between the world body and Khartoum.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail had asked the UN to control its statements “if it really wants security to prevail in Darfur, otherwise the government will reconsider its commitments.”
Reports from the UN and rights groups issued over the past few days harshly criticised the Sudanese government for failing to end the crisis in Darfur, which the UN says has left between 30,000 and 50,000 people dead.
The reports alleged Khartoum was incorporating into the police militias which are accused of war crimes, continuing raids on Darfur and failing to protect the estimated 1.2 million displaced, instead arresting those who spoke to foreign officials or journalists.
Ismail complained that the UN was violating an agreement for Pronk to be the world body’s spokesman on Darfur, and charged the recent flurry of statements was counterproductive and only hurting Sudan’s image.
Quoted in the press on Thursday, Pronk acknowledged that the black African groups which started the rebellion in Darfur in February 2003 should be disarmed as well as the marauding Janjaweed militias which have drawn international opprobrium for their exactions.
Pronk’s conciliatory comments came as another Sudanese newspaper, the Al-Anbaa daily, quoted President Omar al-Beshir as requesting the help of tribal leaders in Darfur to rein in the rebel groups.
“Darfur will not be secure unless weapons are collected from all sectors of the society except the regular forces,” Beshir was quoted by the official Al-Anbaa daily as saying.
Beshir has repeatedly tried to put the ball back in the rebels’ court by saying the Janjaweed could be brought under control only if Darfur rebel groups disarmed at the same time.
Reacting to the recent string of accusations levelled at his action since the Darfur crisis hit the limelight last month, Beshir reiterated his commitment to ending the bloodshed and what has been described the worst humanitarian disaster in the world.
Calls in the United States for a military intervention in Darfur have been gaining momentum, prompting Beshir to accuse Western powers of seeking to plunder his country’s resources.
On Wednesday, the leader of one of the two rebel groups in Darfur urged the United States and Britain to send troops to the war-torn region immediately.
A 300-strong contingent of African Union troops due to be airlifted to Darfur shortly is only tasked with protecting ceasefire monitors. Khartoum has fiercely opposed any plans for a larger peace-keeping force to be deployed.
Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo has invited representatives of the Sudanese government and rebel leaders to attend talks in Abuja on August 23 in order to find a way to end the war.
On Thursday Libyan Foreign Minister Abderrahman Shalgham said that Tripoli had proposed to the African Union that it stage a meeting of all the parties in the Darfur conflict.
Shalgham, in an interview with the Egyptian government-owned Al-Ahram daily, said the Sudanese government should be helped to carry out its commitments, and warned against the dispatch of Western troops to Darfur.
“It would be a disaster,” he said. “Islamists would come from everywhere on the pretext of fighting a holy war, the people of Darfur would also gight, the problem would become more difficult and Darfur would become a new Afghanistan, a second Iraq.”