Darfur still troubled as UN deadline runs out

By Nima Elbagir

KHARTOUM, Aug 30 (Reuters) – A U.N.-imposed deadline for Sudan to prove it can protect the people of strifetorn Darfur ran out on Monday, but international officials said the violence was far from over.

Nigerian President and African Union (AU) chairman Olusegun Obasanjo said AU monitors had confirmed allegations by Darfur rebels that the Sudan government launched fresh attacks on civilians last week.

“The reported attacks by the government forces have been confirmed to me by the AU chairman of the ceasefire monitoring commission,” Obasanjo told a news conference in the Nigerian capital Abuja, where peace talks are being held between the Sudanese government and rebels.

Obasanjo said he had written to Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir asking him to ensure all attacks on civilians by government forces and Arab Janjaweed militia stopped, to avoid undermining the Abuja talks.

The comments came on the day the U.N. had set as a deadline for Sudan to address the crisis or face possible sanctions.

Rebels have already staged a 24-hour boycott of the peace talks in protest at the latest attacks, which they say killed 75 civilians in six villages.

Up to 50,000 people have died since the conflict began in February 2003 and more than a million have fled their homes for fear of attack by the Janjaweed.

Darfur rebels and rights groups say the Arab militia have been mobilised by Khartoum to help crush rebels and have waged a campaign of ethnic cleansing of African villages.

RAPE

Khartoum denies all allegations of collusion with the Janjaweed. “Actually the Sudanese government is enforcing the ceasefire agreement and does not need to be reminded to do so,” government delegation leader Majzoub al-Khalifa said in Abuja.

He said he believed the United Nations would probably not advocate sanctions as his government had helped improve the situation on the ground and talks were still in progress.

Speaking in Nairobi, Dennis McNamara, special advisor to the U.N. Emergency Relief Co-ordinator on Displacement, said recent attacks in Darfur included rapes by militia of women and girls.

“It hasn’t stopped. There are enough first-hand, credible reports that this remains a major problem,” he told a news conference after visiting victims in Darfur camps. “Security needs to be improved and perpetrators need to be prosecuted.”

The U.S. State Department said security in Darfur remained a “major problem” despite signs of progress and said it was concerned about continued reports of violence against civilians.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Constance Berry Newman visited a refugee camp in Darfur on Monday and would meet senior Sudanese officials in Khartoum, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington.

“She’s going to say that it’s… vital for the government of Sudan to comply fully with its own commitments, comply fully with the requirements of the U.N. resolution,” he said.

SANCTIONS NOT LIKELY YET

The U.N. Security Council will soon receive a report on Darfur from U.N. special envoy Jan Pronk, who is scheduled to address the 15-member body on Thursday.

Reports from the United Nations and others have made clear that Sudan has not reined in the Arab militias, as the council demanded in a resolution last month, but say it has cooperated in dealing with the humanitarian crisis.

U.S. officials insist sanctions remain an option but acknowledge the votes are not there for them now.

“It has become increasingly clear that the key to protecting the people of Darfur is an AU mission in sufficient numbers,” said a spokesman for John Danforth, U.S. ambassador to the U.N.

Around 150 Nigerian soldiers arrived on Monday in el-Fasher, capital of Northern Darfur state, to join troops sent by Rwanda to protect the AU representatives monitoring a ceasefire.

Sudan accused rebels of kidnapping aid workers. The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs said rebels seized eight workers from the U.N.’s World Food Programme (WFP) and the Sudanese Red Crescent in Northern Darfur.

“The outlaws do not want the security situation for the people of Darfur to stabilise and that is within the context of their behaviour, which has consistently targeted humanitarian work,” a ministry statement said.

WFP spokesman Marcus Prior said three Sudanese working for WFP and five Sudanese Red Crescent workers had been last heard from on Saturday afternoon.

(Additional reporting by Tume Ahema in Abuja, Dino Mahtani in Lagos and Evelyn Leopold at the United Nations)