Sudan rebels say thousands more could die in Darfur.

By Andrew Cawthorne

LONDON, Oct 14 (Reuters) – Tens of thousands more civilians in Darfur may die in coming months unless security improves, rebels from ravaged western Sudan said on Thursday.

Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM) General-Secretary Minni Arcua Minnawi attends a news conference in London October 14, 2004.

“It’s a matter of an ugly, genocidal war,” said Sharif Harir, a senior member of the Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM), one of Darfur’s two rebel groups whose uprising last year provoked a fierce response from the government and Arab militia.

“Already 50,000 have died, and 10,000 have the potential to die every month if things don’t improve,” he added.

The United Nations’ World Food Programme said this week it is being forced to scale back food aid in Darfur due to growing violence. Darfur residents recently told a visiting U.N. delegation of new attacks by Arab militiamen.

The SLM leaders — on a visit to London to garner international support — indicated they were pinning hopes for peace on fresh talks in Nigeria later this month rather than on a conference planned by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi this week.

“The meeting of Libya we do not have any information about,” SLM General-Secretary Minni Arcua Minnawi told reporters.

“We are going to Abuja.”

The African Union-sponsored peace talks between the Sudanese government and rebels in the Nigerian capital collapsed last month but are due to reconvene on Oct. 21.

Separately, Gaddafi plans to host a summit beginning on Friday with the presidents of Chad, Egypt and Nigeria to discuss a regional response to violence in Darfur, where 1.5 million fled their homes according to U.N. estimates.

Gaddafi has invited the Khartoum government, and the two rebel groups — the SLM and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) — but SLM representatives in London said the Libyan initiative was a distraction to the real negotiations.

“BASHIR OUR QUARTER-MASTER”

The rebels took up arms last year accusing Khartoum of neglecting Darfur and of arming mounted Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, to loot and burn non-Arab villages.

A shaky ceasefire came in April, but violence continues.

Khartoum admits arming some militias to fight the rebels but denies any links to the Janjaweed, calling them outlaws.

The conflict in Darfur, a remote western region of Sudan the size of France and with a population of 6 million, has drawn huge international attention. Washington calls it “genocide”, while the United Nations and European Union threaten sanctions.

The SLM rebels welcomed Washington’s position, but rejected suggestions they were receiving any U.S. finance or logistics.

“Bashir is our quartermaster,” Harir quipped, saying all SLM arms were stolen from troops loyal to Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. “We do not have any country to bring us the logistics,” added Minnawi.

The SLM also rejected accusations of ceasefire violations as “propaganda and disinformation” by Khartoum, but admitted exercising its “right to self-defence” when soldiers attacked.

The SLM said it would willingly sign this month the so-called Abuja protocol guaranteeing security for relief workers in Darfur. It had not previously signed it due to the government’s failure to agree other key clauses, Harir, the SLM’s negotiator in Abuja, told the news conference.

The SLM leaders said they hoped African Union troops and monitors would eventually impose peace on Darfur, but if that failed outside intervention would be welcome as a last resort.

“Whoever comes to help us protect our civilians, to end our tragedy, to come back to normal life, we will cooperate with him,” Harir said.