Sudan defiant after US walkout at UN, warns against politicising Darfur
KHARTOUM, May 5 (AFP) — Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail vowed his government would not be “intimidated” after US diplomats staged a walkout at the United Nations in protest at Khartoum’s reelection to the UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR).
“We will not be intimidated by force and will not be lacking in logic for defending the Sudan,” Ismail told reporters.
“We did not want this confrontation but so long as the United States wanted it in response to a pressuring group, it should be aware that the Sudanese diplomacy will remain vigilant and cautious for defending the Sudan’s rights and interests, however the position of the US administration is”.
Ismail said Khartoum would continue to try to open channels of communication with Washington. “We are convinced that it is a power that must be neutralised.”
But he hit out at US championing of human rights charging that “the world’s greatest advocate of human rights” was in fact “the world’s greatest violator of human rights and the whole world is aware of this fact.”
Before its walkout from the UN Economic and Social Council Tuesday, Washington accused the Sudanese authorities of a litany of abuses in the restive western region of Darfur which it said made them unworthy of reelection to the UNCHR.
Another Sudanese minister hit back earlier Wednesday at the growing US criticism of his government’s policies in Darfur, warning relief operations in the region might “be impaired if the Darfur problem is turned into a political issue.”
State Humanitarian Affairs Minister Mohamed Yusuf Abdullah also warned aid organizations not to take positions on the civil war in the region between rebel groups drawn from indigenous non-Arab ethnic minorities, and government troops and their Arab militia allies.
Political disagreements among relief groups “would greatly harm their performance and the affected people will be harmed likewise,” said Abdullah.
Several relief organisations have accused the Arab militias of terrorising the population, prompting the government to try to distance itself from their actions.
Khartoum has also faced criticism from Western governments over the obstacles it has placed in the way of foreign missions wanting to visit Darfur to assess the situation on the ground.
Abdullah said the government had agreed to open new distribution centres outside the capitals of the three states that make up Darfur to speed up aid delivery.
The minister identified the new centres as Juldu, Olu and Roky Ru in the eastern part of the central Jebel Marra massif and Ambru, Tina and Kornoi in North Darfur State.
According to the United Nations, since the start of the Darfur rebellion in February last year, well over a million people have fled their homes, with 95,000 of them taking refuge in neighbouring Chad.