Sudanese government vows to respect ceasefire in bloodied Darfur region
By Ali Abba Kaya
NDJAMENA, April 11 (AFP) — Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir vowed his government would respect a ceasefire scheduled to take effect on Sunday night in the western region of Darfur to end a conflict described by the United Nations as the world’s worst current humanitarian disaster.
“We have come to confirm to President Deby that we are committed to respecting the Ndjamena agreements,” al-Beshir said of the ceasefire deal between the Khartoum government and Darfur rebels, which was mediated by the government of Chadian President Idriss Deby.
Al-Beshir was speaking to reporters from the Chadian capital Ndjamena shortly before the ceasefire was due to come into effect at 8:00 pm (1700 GMT). But neither he nor Deby would say whether they expected the truce to take effect on time and neither the army nor the rebels were available to comment on Sunday evening.
The renewable 45-day truce, which was struck on Thursday, is the third between the government and the Darfur rebels. The first two were shortlived.
But Deby said he and al-Beshir had discussed for several hours ways of monitoring the new truce and plans to hold further negotiations on political issues on April 20.
And ministers who had been involved in the ceasefire talks stressed their commitment to its terms, including the disarmament of pro-government militias that have been blamed for much of the violence in Darfur.
South Darfur state governor Adam Hamid Mussa said the ceasefire signalled “approaching peace” for the stricken region, where the war has displaced about 670,000 people inside Sudan since it erupted in February 2003 and forced about 100,000 others to flee to neighbouring Chad.
But there were reports that the region remained volatile.
The Sudanese Media Center, an Internet news site close to the government, reported on Sunday that unidentified armed men had stopped a bus on the road to Al-Fashir, the capital of North Darfur, and abducted eight passengers. The SMC did not specify when the incident had taken place nor whether there had been any casualties.
Under the surprise ceasefire deal agreed on Thursday, the government and rebels from the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) pledged to guarantee safe passage for humanitarian aid to Darfur, free prisoners of war and disarm militias blamed for most of the violence there.
The Janjawid, Arab militias allied to government troops, have been accused by the UN and non-governmental organisations of carrying out “ethnic cleansing” and atrocities against civilians in Darfur.
The Sudanese media reported that the government had started implementing the ceasefire on Saturday night by releasing about 60 suspected rebels captured in North Darfur.
The SMC quoted informed sources as saying 59 rebels had been released on the orders of security and intelligence chief Major General Salah Abdallah.
Akhbar Al Youm daily said 63 prisoners has been freed at a ceremony in the state capital Al-Fashir at which North Darfur governor Osman Yusuf Kibir pledged to honour the truce.
It quoted Kibir as saying “the winners were Darfur and Sudan” and urging the freed prisoners to “forget the bitterness and participate in the development and peace in Darfur”.
Government ministers also promised to respect the truce.
“The government is determined to bring the (pro-Khartoum) militias under control so that those groups will not violate the ceasefire,” State Foreign Minister Al-Tigani Salih Fidhail told reporters in Khartoum. The government would also halt its anti-rebel propaganda, he said.
Investment Minister Al-Sherif Ahmed Omar Badr said the president had given orders for displaced people to be helped to return to their villages before the rainy season began in mid-May.
Darfur is a poverty-stricken, largely desert region populated by non-Arab Muslims.
The rebels there contend that Darfur has been marginalised by the Arab Muslim authorities in Khartoum.
They also fear Darfur will be excluded from a power- and wealth-sharing accord that is being negotiated between Khartoum and separatist rebels from the mainly Christian and animist south, who have been fighting a civil war for the past two decades.
That civil war has become the longest in Africa and has claimed an estimated 1.5 million lives since 1983. Both sides said on Saturday a deal was just a few days off.