British FM flies into Khartoum to voice concern over Darfur crisis
KHARTOUM, Aug 23 (AFP) — British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw flew into Khartoum, vowing to impress on Sudanese leaders the international community’s growing concern over the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.
He went straight into talks with his Sudanese counterpart Mustafa Osman Ismail after which they were due to hold a joint conference.
Later he was due to meet Vice President Ali Osman Taha before heading to Darfur on Tuesday to visit a displaced persons’ camp and see the impact of the 18-month-old civil war there first-hand.
“I am keen to see for myself the situation on the ground in Darfur, and to make clear to the Sudanese government and people the extent of British, and broader international, concern,” Straw said before his departure from London.
The foreign secretary said he would be “liaising closely” with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who Monday hosted a new round of peace talks between the Sudanese authorities and the ethnic minority rebels in Darfur.
The government of President Omar al-Beshir has been roundly criticised abroad for failing to disarm state-sponsored militias accused of mounting a reign of terror in Darfur against villagers suspected of supporting the rebels.
The UN Security Council last month gave Khartoum until Sunday to rein in the militias or face international action over their depredations, which the world body says have sparked the world’s worst current humanitarian crisis.
Prime Minister Tony Blair’s office stressed Straw was delivering a “clear message” to Sudan that it must heed the Security Council resolution.
“There has to be a political solution to the crisis and the government of Sudan has to be part of that,” a Blair spokeswoman said.
Nigeria and Rwanda have made more than 2,000 soldiers available to transform a small African Union ceasefire monitoring team already in Darfur into a genuine peacekeeping force, but Sudan has repeatedly insisted that it will only allow a few hundred foreign troops to provide protection to the observers.
Straw said he would report back on his visit to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, as the world body mulls what measures to adopt if Sudan continues to ignore the calls for action.
UN officials say up to 50,000 people have so far died in Darfur and another 1.4 million fled their homes. Of those, approaching 200,000 have sought refuge in neighbouring Chad.
At the weekend, the Sudanese government acknowledged for the first time that its militia allies had committed serious human rights abuses, including rape, against Darfur civilians.
It handed over a list of 30 suspects to an envoy of the UN Commission for Human Rights.
Sudanese officials had previously dismissed charges by London-based rights watchdog Amnesty International that rape was being used systematically as a weapon in the suppression of the rebellion in Darfur.