UK’s Straw Tells Sudan to Comply with U.N.

By Madeline Chambers

KHARTOUM, Aug 23 (Reuters) – British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw urged Sudan on Monday to comply with U.N. demands to end the conflict in Darfur that has killed up to 50,000 people and reported a glimpse of progress after high-level talks.

Straw told reporters Khartoum had pledged to use accords signed in May with rebel groups in the south of the country as a template for peace talks over the western Darfur region, now taking place in Abuja, Nigeria.

“I was pleased to learn of the commitment of the government of Sudan to using these protocols,” Straw said after talks with Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail.

The Naivasha accords, named after the Kenyan town where they were sealed, aimed to end a 21-year war. Straw said Sudan had agreed to put forward a similar idea at Abuja.

“If you look at the six Naivasha protocols, you see a framework for … devolution both of power and wealth,” he said.

But in the Nigerian capital on Monday, Sudanese peace talks began under a cloud as Khartoum rejected a plan for African troops to disarm rebels in the war-torn Darfur region.

After years of low-level conflict between Arab nomadic tribes and African farming communities over dwindling resources in Darfur, rebels took up arms in February 2003.

They accuse the government of helping Arab militias known as Janjaweed to loot and burn African villages in a campaign of ethnic cleansing in the western region.

Khartoum denies the charge, calling the Janjaweed outlaws.

Ismail told reporters Sudanese forces, as of a week ago, had arrested over 200 of them.

Sudan has until the end of August to prove to the U.N. Security Council it is doing more to protect more than a million people who have fled fighting in Darfur and has taken steps to disarm the Janjaweed. Otherwise it could face sanctions.

“I will … impress on them the need to make full progress in implementing the obligations they have accepted under the U.N. Security Council resolution,” Straw said.

But Britain advocates a cautious approach.

“If we were to drive ahead like a bull at a gate and end up with a split in the Security Council, it would work in favor of the hard-liners in the Sudanese government,” a senior official said. “We have to feel our way.”

HELP FOR AFRICAN TROOPS

Britain has offered the African Union (AU) extra funding to expand its force charged with protecting cease-fire monitors in the region and will back plans for a far larger presence than is currently there.

Rwanda has sent 155 troops to protect AU officials monitoring a cease-fire, Nigeria is due to send another 150 this week and is thinking about offering far more.

Britain has already spent two million pounds helping the AU mission and will now give a further 750,000 pounds ($1.36 million) to fly in Nigerian troops and provide rations.

But Sudan rejected an offer to expand the AU troops’ role to disarm rebels in Darfur, insisting it was capable of tackling both pro-government and rebel militias in the western region.

Straw’s visit follows similar high-level trips to Sudan from other foreign officials including Secretary of State Colin Powell and French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier.

Rights group Amnesty International urged Straw to be blunt.

“Mr Straw’s message should be that rape, torture and murder absolutely must be stopped and that perpetrators need to be brought to justice,” Amnesty’s UK director Kate Allen said.

Straw’s visit, which includes a visit to the Abu Shouk refugee camp in Darfur, is expected to last three days.

(Additional reporting by Opheera McDoom)