INTERVIEW-Darfur rebels hope for pressure on Khartoum
By Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA, June 3 (Reuters) – Sudanese rebels fighting government-backed militia in the Darfur region on Thursday called for international pressure on the Khartoum government to allow in life-saving aid and enter talks on political change.
In an interview, Sharif Harir, a senior Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) negotiator, accused the governmnent of repeatedly violating a humanitarian ceasefire signed in April.
But he expressed hope that separate talks between Khartoum and southern rebels — expected to enter a final phase on Saturday to end Africa’s longest civil war — will have a positive effect on the conflict in the western Darfur region.
Harir was speaking on the sidelines of a donor meeting called by the United Nations to mobilise against a humanitarian crisis in Darfur. A senior U.S. official on Thursday warned that hundreds of thousands may already be doomed to die.
Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes and abandoned farms, mostly to avoid Arab militias known as the Janjaweed, whom U.N. officials have accused of ethnic cleansing aimed at black Africans.
“We think international pressure on the government in Khartoum should continue so the ceasefire we signed is respected, because there have been repeated violations. Then humanitarian workers can safely work and have access and then the situation will be contained,” Harir told Reuters.
He added: “As soon as the government accepts that this is a political problem whose root causes have to be negotiated, then we are ready to sit down with them.”
The SLA and allied Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebels, who launched an offensive in February 2003, accuse Khartoum of neglecting the impoverished area and arming Arab militias to loot and burn African villages.
Janjaweed militia were on the move in Goz-Belt in central Darfur on Thursday, according to the SLA negotiator. He said he was expecting news of new clashes and burned villages. “This is their modus operandi,” he added.
Harir said that the talks slated for Nairobi on Saturday between the government and southern Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) rebels would bring a “new situation” which would be a “positive reference point on how to deal with the problem of Sudan”.
“The problem is that Khartoum is ruling Sudan with a very hard grip of centralism, excluding others from sharing in the process of decision-making, wealth, and development,” he said.