Darfur rebels call for creating humanitarian corridors

BBC Monitoring Middle East

By Sudanese opposition National Democratic Alliance radio

Nov. 16, 2003 — Sudan Liberation Movement [SLM] has called for creating safe corridors for delivering humanitarian assistance to the three states in Darfur [western Sudan] since the international relief organizations are reporting that danger of famine and epidemics are looming in the area.

SLM spokesman said they were ready to sign a special agreement with Khartoum for relief to flow through corridors of tranquillity, under the UN supervision, in order to rescue innocent people.

The spokesman said his Movement was calling on the international community and human rights organizations to speedily intervene to stop imminent massacres which could be similar to those of Rwanda in 1994.

He accused the government of mobilizing some tribes, even from neighbouring countries, to stir ethnic conflicts.

SLM spokesman said the government had massed its forces and militias in four directions to attack “our positions and we will not hesitate to respond with all our force for self-defence.”

The UN coordinator for humanitarian affairs in Sudan, Mukesh Kapila, last week, warned that the semi-desert area of western Sudan could be an arena of the worst humanitarian crisis in Sudan since tense of thousands lost their lives in Bahr-al-Gahzal, South of Darfur in 1998.