Sudan president urges western Sudan rebels to end bloodshed
KHARTOUM, Sudan, April 5, 2004 (AP) — President Omar el-Bashir said Monday his government was determined to end the nation’s civil war and urged rebels in western Sudan -where the U.N. says one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises is playing out – to end the bloodshed.
“Whatever may be the hurdles that stand on the road to reaching peace, we remain committed to overcoming them and we will go to the end,” el-Bashir said before a session of parliament opened.
The government, he added, was ready to review any proposals that seek to bring the two negotiating parties closer. Peace talks to end Sudan ‘s 21-year civil war in the south are nearing completion in Kenya.
But while they’ve inched toward a conclusion, fighting has intensified in western Sudan , creating a humanitarian crisis in Darfur province. The U.N. estimates hundreds of people have been killed, 750,000 have been displaced inside Sudan and tens of thousands more have been forced to flee into Chad.
Said el-Bashir: “We call on those carrying arms in Darfur to overcome differences, listen to the voice of wisdom and deny those seeking to diffuse regionalist and tribalist trends and who seek to let us down the chance (to do so).”
He was referring to the opposition Popular Congress party of Hassan Turabi, which the government accuses of being behind the unrest in Darfur. Turabi, who was arrested Saturday with about 30 others accused of trying to topple the president, has dismissed the accusations as an attempt to win favor with the West by saying Islamists are behind the violence.
El-Bashir said Darfur was calm now, after an announcement of a general pardon and the cessation of major military operations in the region as well as the opening of delivery corridors for aid to the needy.
“Calm has been restored and most of the people have now returned to their areas. The government has now opened all corridors for delivery of relief to the affected persons,” the president stressed.
Elizabeth Hodgkin, an Amnesty International expert on Sudan , told The Associated Press in Cairo Monday that the Sudanese president had made similar claims of calm in the past that turned out to be false. “We don’t have any reason to believe that is true,” Hodgkin said of the fresh word of calm.
Amnesty is among several international human rights groups that have accused el-Bashir’s government of committing atrocities in Darfur. Most of their information has come from Sudanese refugees in neighboring Chad because of limited access to Darfur.
Such accusations that government-backed militias were committing atrocities in Darfur were rejected Monday by the speaker of the Sudanese parliament.
“We back the government efforts against the allegations of some organizations that seek to smear the reputation of Sudan …on (the) pretext of human rights violations,” Ahmed Ibrahim el-Tahir was quoted by the state run radio as saying Monday.
El-Bashir said his government also plans a national conference to discuss the Darfur problems.