American delegation inspects humanitarian situation in Sudan’s Darfur province
KHARTOUM, Sudan, June 27, 2004 (AP) — An American congressional delegation on Sunday visited a refugee camp and met with local officials in the stricken North Darfur state, the official news agency reported.
Sen. Sam Brownback, from Kansas, and Rep. Frank Wolf, from Virginia, visited the Abu Shawk refugee camp as well as humanitarian organizations in the area, SUNA said, and met with State Governor Osman Mohammed Youssef. It was the first trip to the region by American lawmakers.
The governor gave the delegation a report on the region and the government’s efforts to restore order and improve the humanitarian situation, SUNA said.
The situation in Darfur, in western Sudan, has become a major humanitarian crisis due to a 16-month struggle between black African tribesmen and government-backed Arab militias. The United Nations says more than 30,000 people have been killed and 1 million displaced, and some have accused the Sudanese government of backing an “ethnic cleansing” of the desolate region’s African majority.
Sudanese officials reject the claims and say the warring sides are clashing over land and water resources, a position which Youssef repeated to the delegation on Sunday, SUNA reported.
Youssef told the Americans that the government was going ahead with its plans to disarm all groups in the region and facilitate aid to alleviate the humanitarian crisis, the news agency said.
No other details were available on the visit.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan plan a similar trip to the region this week to press the government to end the fighting.
President Omar el-Bashir’s government promised this month to begin disarming the raiders, but the U.S. State Department has said little progress has been made.
Also Sunday, Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail met with Gerard M. Gallucci, charge d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy, to discuss preparations for Powell’s visit.
“Our policy has not changed,” Ismail told reporters after the meeting. “It is an open door policy to all those who want to know the facts.”
The American administration has mounted a US$100 million relief operation for the starving and harassed people of Darfur in western Sudan, a White House official said Sunday.
The United States has been using costly airlifts for aid to the sprawling where more than 350,000 people have been displaced and 106,000 have fled into neighboring Chad. Land routes from Khartoum, the Sudan capital, and through Chad are difficult and dangerous.
On Friday, Annan raised the possibility of sending international troops to Darfur in case the Sudanese government was unable ensure the safety of the civilians in the area.