German FM goes to Sudan for Darfur crisis talks

BERLIN, July 11, 2004 (AP) — German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer left for Sudan Sunday afternoon for talks on the crisis in the Darfur region, his ministry said.

Fischer is traveling to Khartoum and will return to Germany Monday, but his deputy, Kerstin Mueller, will continue to Darfur.

Fischer’s plane is carrying 3.5 metric tons of medicine – enough for 1,000 people for a month – to be dispensed by the German Red Cross in Darfur.

U.N. officials and human rights groups have accused Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir’s government of backing Arab militiamen – known as the “Janjaweed,” or horsemen – in a violent campaign to expel African farmers from Darfur.

U.N. officials have called the situation in Darfur the worst humanitarian crisis in the world and say that thousands of people have been killed and more than a million others have been forced from their homes. Most of the refugees have taken shelter in makeshift camps along the Chad-Sudan border.

Sudan denies the allegations, but last week el-Bashir promised U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell – both of whom were visiting the country – that his government would disarm the militia.