Ceasefire violations in Sudan’s Darfur region put truce at risk

KHARTOUM, April 13, 2004 (dpa) — A 45-day ceasefire agreement between the warring parties in Sudan’s western Darfur region is in question as the parties to the conflict have begun blaming each other for violating the truce they signed Thursday.

Reports from Darfur Tuesday say three people were wounded when a passenger bus was fired on by an armed group while the bus was on its way from the town of Zalengy to the southern Darfur city of Nyala, the second-largest city in the region.

A source close to the rebels who spoke to Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa by telephone from Nyala on condition of anonymity accused the government-backed Arab militias known as “el-Genjaweed” of seriously wounding the three passengers and of looting the bus.

He said another eight people were abducted by the gunmen.

The Islamic government in Khartoum is accused of backing Arab militias in Darfur who have been fighting local rebel groups for more than a year.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Mustafa Osman Ismael in a statement Tuesday accused the rebel forces in Darfur of kidnapping a whole bus, arresting its passengers and looting their belongings. Sudanese authorities say 13 passengers were abducted.

“We have received news that a passenger bus has been kidnapped by the rebels,” he stated as he added that the government immediately formed a committee to monitor the situation there.

Ismael promised to let already established ceasefire mechanisms consider the violation, referring to the role the African Union currently is playing on the issue of Darfur.

“We don’t have much information about the incident, but what we have is that rebels are violating the truce they signed,” the minister said in the statement.

The humanitarian ceasefire agreement in Darfur came after the U.N. Security Council voiced “deep concern” April 2 over the humanitarian situation in Sudan`s Darfur region. The fighting has sent tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees into neighbouring Chad.

Secretary General Kofi Annan said Thursday the international community must be ready to take swift and appropriate action against Sudan, if the Khartoum government denies aid workers access to Darfur.

The government has held rebel movements in Darfur responsible for violating the ceasefire agreement. The agreement was signed April 7 in Chad by the government and the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).

Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry rejected U.S. accusations of infringement of ceasefire in Darfur.

Ismael also denied that the European Union was represented within the ceasefire monitoring commission, and said that there was a meeting of the African Union Tuesday at Addis Ababa to discuss the Darfur situation. He said the African Union solely is assigned to monitor the ceasefire.