Turabi says Sudan govt to blame for Darfur fighting
DUBAI, April 3 (Reuters) – Sudanese opposition leader Hassan al-Turabi was quoted on Saturday as saying the government was to blame for violence in the western Darfur region and that the country may be torn apart if reforms are not implemented.
Turabi was speaking to London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper a few days before he was arrested on Wednesday on accusations of inciting tribal tensions.
“Darfur has suffered greatly and because pleas to resolve the issue were neglected, its people were driven to military action,” Turabi told the Arabic-language daily. “We believe there are injustices in Darfur that must be treated but not through military action.”
Two rebel groups launched a revolt in the Darfur region in February 2003, accusing Khartoum of neglecting the poor area and arming Arab militias to loot and burn African villages.
The U.N. emergency relief coordinator said on Friday Arab militias are conducting an organised campaign of ethnic cleansing to drive out black Africans and that the government was doing little to stop it.
Other parts of the oil-producing nation, Africa’s largest in size, have been mired in two decades of civil war, fuelled by religion, ethnicity, oil and political ideology.
“Western Sudan is on fire now and in the east the situation is starting to flare up and the south is still reluctant, and this all represents pressure to change the system….or else Sudan will be torn apart,” Turabi said.
“We need a transitional system which establishes foundations of a democratic shura movement which guarantees people rights.”
The opposition Islamist leader was detained previously in 2001 after a power struggle with Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and was released from house arrest in October. Since his release he has openly criticised Bashir’s government.
Turabi’s Popular Congress party was suspended from political activities, after its was loosely linked this week to a number of military officers arrested on suspicion of planning a coup.