UN steps up pressure on Sudan over Arab militias

By Opheera McDoom

KHARTOUM, Sept 7 (Reuters) – The United Nations said on Tuesday Arab militias were still attacking villages in Sudan’s Darfur region despite government pledges, and Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Khartoum must do much more to protect civilians.

Annan also called on Sudan to accept a larger monitoring force from the African Union (AU), and said he expected the U.N. Security Council to take action within a week.

A top Sudanese official hit back at Washington’s threat of sanctions over Darfur, saying it was part of a conspiracy by the United States to destroy the government, as it had done in Iraq and Somalia.

The United Nations, which says the world’s worst humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Darfur, put fresh pressure on Khartoum by issuing a report that security had deteriorated in the vast and arid western region.

“Most recent reported attacks by Arab militias included the attack on Ishma, an SLA (rebel) controlled village, on Sept. 3 … and attacks on the village on Golgol, south of Thur, on Sept. 2,” the report said.

It said lack of security had closed two main roads in Darfur to U.N. traffic and that two clearly marked U.N. vehicles had been robbed of cash and communications equipment on Sept. 2.

“Whilst we have a great access on the humanitarian front, a lot needs to be done on the security front,” Annan told reporters. “We believe that more can and should be done.”

ANNAN WANTS MORE TROOPS

The 53-nation AU has some 400 troops and observers in Darfur, but Annan said: “I hope the (Security) Council will support the need for a larger force to go in.”

A 30-day U.N. Security Council deadline has expired for Sudan to disarm and prosecute Arab militiamen accused of killing, raping and driving African villagers from their land.

The United States, a leading advocate of sanctions, said last week it was preparing a new U.N. resolution but opinion is split among Security Council members on any embargo.

The United Nations says more than a million people have fled their homes in the past 19 months for fear of attack by the militias, known as Janjaweed. It estimates 50,000 people have been killed.

The rebels began their uprising in February 2003 after years of low-level fighting between mainly African farmers and Arab nomads over scarce food and water resources.

In the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, Angelo Beda, deputy speaker of the Sudanese parliament, dismissed the U.S. threat of sanctions.

“Sudan is not afraid of the threat of sanctions by the United States, which is using the crisis in Darfur to weaken and destroy the government of Sudan in a similar fashion in which they devastated Iraq and Somalia,” Beda told reporters.

He was referring to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and U.S. involvement in a Somalia peace operation that ended in humiliation in 1993.

Khartoum has said it does not control the Janjaweed, and branding those who attack civilians outlaws.

NEW PROPOSALS

AU mediators drafted fresh security proposals in an effort to end an impasse in two weeks of peace talks between the government and rebels in the Nigerian capital Abuja.

The rebels are demanding power and wealth sharing measures that echo those sought by other rebels in the south, where there is a truce as talks go on to end 21 years of conflict.

Analysts say the impasse was the result of a lack of diplomatic pressure on the rebels, and government fears that rebel demands for greater autonomy in both the south and the west may eventually threaten the existence of Sudan.

“These talks are not about who controls Darfur, but about who controls Khartoum,” said Tom Cargill of the London-based Royal Institute of International Affairs.

The rebels say they will not sign a security agreement until a political deal has been sealed, and that they will not garrison their fighters until the militias are disarmed.

The government says it will not carry out disarmament until the rebels move into containment areas.

Both sides accuse each other of breaching a ceasefire.

(Additional reporting by Tume Ahemba in Abuja, Dino Mahtani in Lagos, Tsegaye Tadesse in Addis Ababa)