Sudan signs Darfur displaced return deal with U.N.
By Opheera McDoom
KHARTOUM, Aug 21 (Reuters) – Sudan on Saturday signed an agreement to ensure the voluntary return of more than one million people displaced by fighting in the Darfur region and said it was giving Darfuris more say in local government.
Sudan, under threat of possible sanctions, has less than two weeks to prove to the U.N. Security Council it is taking action to improve security in remote Darfur, where a rebellion has raged since February last year.
Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said the agreement on internally displaced people (IDPs) with the United Nations should help reassure the international community.
Rebels and aid workers say the Sudanese authorities have sometimes tried to force displaced people home against their will. The Sudanese government denies the allegation.
“Of course this first of all will revoke any queries about whether the return of the IDPs is voluntary or involuntary. We have an international organisation who will supervise the return,” Ismail told reporters.
He added the government had begun to form a native Darfuri administration to work in coordination with the local government until local elections are held.
He said a peace agreement to end a separate conflict in the south stated that there would be elections in all the states of Sudan to elect government officials.
The Darfur revolt broke out after years of conflict between Arab nomads and African farmers over scarce resources. Rebels says Khartoum has armed Arab militia known as Janjaweed to loot and burn villages in a campaign of ethnic cleansing.
Khartoum denies the charge and calls the Janjaweed outlaws. The U.N. says the fighting has sparked the world’s worst humanitarian crisis with about 200,000 refugees in neighbouring Chad and more than one million displaced inside Sudan.
OBSTACLES
The U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, Manuel Aranda da Silva, said he was encouraged by Sudan’s actions to improve the humanitarian situation in Darfur, but said the main obstacle to reaching all those in need was capacity and funding.
“I am very encouraged by the fact that the capabilities on the ground are increasing,” he told reporters, adding there was still a long way to go. “I feel that a lot of effort is being made on the part of the government.”
Asked what was stopping humanitarian agencies reaching the estimated half a million or so who are still in need of aid, da Silva said: “The main problem is capacity.”
Ismail said he had asked U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to exempt train spare parts from U.S. sanctions imposed on Sudan about 10 years ago, to facilitate a cheaper way to take aid to Darfur.
Sudan hosted al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in the 1990s and the United States lists it as a “state sponsor of terrorism”.
Da Silva said 12 safe areas to be established by the government should not be at the expense of security in other areas of Darfur.
Ismail said Sudan had already begun to deploy police to the safe areas and redeploy armed forces around them to prevent militia attacks on refugees.
He added Sudan had arrested seven of 13 people accused of producing a fake video of soldiers raping villagers in Darfur, and five had confessed to fabricating the video.
Rights groups say there is a systematic campaign of rape in Darfur by armed forces and militias, which Sudan denies. U.N. official Jean-Marie Fakhouri told Reuters on Friday refugees had told him they had been raped as recently as a few days ago.