Pressure mounts on Sudan to ease Darfur crisis
LONDON, July 7 (AFP) — Sudan came under mounting international pressure Wednesday to take steps to ease the humanitarian crisis in its western Darfur region as Britain and France called on Khartoum to take action to distribute aid supplies and rein in pro-government militias or face possible sanctions.
Chad, which has taken in more than 100,000 refugees, called on rebels to take part in talks planned for later this month.
An estimated 10,000 people have died in the region, a million have been driven from their homes to other parts of Sudan and 120,000 have sought refuge in neighbouring Chad as Arab Janjawid militias have attacked villages, killing, raping and burning.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned that Britain could back sanctions against Sudan if much needed foreign aid fails to reach victims of the conflict.
Speaking in Parliament, Blair said he reviewed the crisis Tuesday with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, and that “there is food there now” ready to be distributed to those who need it.
But, he added, the Sudanese authorities had to do their part as well — “and if they do not cooperate, we will have to consider what further measures we will take.”
Annan told African leaders Tuesday that an “even greater humanitarian catastrophe” could unfold in Darfur unless concrete action is taken to stop the Janjawid massacring villagers and razing their homes.
France called on Sudan forcibly to disarm pro-government militias in Darfur if they refused to lay down their weapons, while expressing concern that tens of thousands of displaced people there were facing a humanitarian crisis.
“They should hand their weapons in and if they don’t give them up, they have to be taken from them,” junior foreign minister Renaud Muselier told a Paris news conference.
“The Janjawid Arab militias have had a certain free reign and have committed totally unacceptable acts and massive human rights violations,” said Muselier, who went to Darfur on a June 20-24 fact-finding trip.
He said Paris would not let up its pressure on the Sudanese government, which had promised Sunday the “immediate” disarmament of the militias during a visit by Annan.
Other international voices have gone further, saying the Sudanese government should face sanctions if it does not do more to rein in the militias and let aid supplies get through safely.
“Sudanese government officials should also be subject to travel and arms sanctions,” said Jemera Rone of the New York-based Human Rights Watch on the eve of a UN Security Council meeting on the crisis.
Chad called on rebels in Darfur region to attend talks planned for next week aimed at resolving the humanitarian crisis.
“We are saying to the rebels that they must take part in the political negotiations,” Foreign Minister Nagoum Yamassoum told AFP at the African Union (AU) summit in Addis Ababa.
Talks are due to take place on July 15 in the Ethiopian capital.
After the president of the AU commission Alpha Oumar Konare announced that talks would take place one of the rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), said it would not take part because it had not been involved in the choice of the place and date.
Its military spokesman Colonel Abdallah Abdel Kerim said: “These political negotiations are coming much too quickly because several points in the April 8 ceasefire agreement have not been respected, such as the creation of a humanitarian corridor or the disarming of the Janjawid.”
Yamassoum said he held talks Wednesday morning with the Sudanese authorities.
“We are doing everything to persuade Khartoum of the necessity of a dialogue” with the rebels and “for a dialogue the Janjawid militias must be disarmed,” he said.