Sudan and Chad pledge to resolve Darfur tensions privately

KHARTOUM, Sudan, May 12, 2004 (AP) — Sudan and Chad have agreed to resolve tensions surrounding fighting in western Sudan that has spilled across the border with Chad, Sudan ‘s minister of information said Wednesday.

Chad’s acting defense minister said Sunday that Sudanese militia had crossed the border last week and clashed with the Chadian army, which killed dozens of them. He said Chad would no longer tolerate such incursions.

Gen. Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein, Sudan ‘s minister of the interior, returned from a visit to Chad and said Wednesday that the two countries would work together to resolve their differences.

“We have come to the agreement that such questions are not solved in the media and that they be resolved through direct contacts,” he said.

The minister told the state-owned radio station Omdurman that he paid a two-day visit to the Chadian capital, N’djamena, to deliver a message from President Omar el-Bashir to Chadian President Idriss Deby. He described the border violence as “tribal.”

“Those problems have existed for a long time and … will never be a source of tension between us, because our intentions are good toward each other,” he said.

“We have renewed our confidence in Chad,” he said. “And President Deby has renewed to us that he continues to exert his best efforts in the mediation of the Darfur question.”

Chad has been helping to mediate a solution to the violence in Darfur, a western Sudanese region that lies along the country’s border with Chad.

Arab tribal militia, allegedly backed by government forces, have attacked dozens of villages killing thousands and driving more than 1 million into flight.