Sudan warns UK, US not to interfere in Darfur

By Paul Carrel

PARIS, July 22 (Reuters) – Sudan warned Britain and the United States not to interfere in its internal affairs on Thursday after Prime Minister Tony Blair said he had not ruled out military aid to help combat the crisis in the Darfur region.

“I don’t understand why Britain and the United States are systematically increasing pressure against us and not operating through the United Nations,” Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said on a visit to Paris.

“(This) pressure closely resembles the increased pressure that was put on Iraq (before the war),” he said.

Washington accuses Khartoum of backing Janjaweed Arab militia in a campaign some U.S. officials have described as ethnic cleansing against black African villagers in Darfur.

The United States has drafted a U.N. resolution that would impose an immediate travel and arms ban on militia members.

“We don’t need any (U.N.) resolutions. Any resolutions from the Security Council will complicate things,” Ismail said.

Blair stepped up the diplomatic pressure on Khartoum on Thursday to deal effectively with what the United Nations calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

“We have a moral responsibility to deal with this and to deal with it by any means that we can,” he said, adding that he had not ruled out the possibility of military assistance to combat the growing humanitarian crisis in Darfur.

After long conflict between Arab nomads and black African farmers, rebel groups launched a revolt in February 2003 in the east of the oil-producing country. Janjaweed militias went on the rampage, driving black Africans into barren camps.

The United Nations estimates that the 15-month conflict has killed at least 30,000 people and displaced more than a million.

Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported that Blair was drawing up plans for military intervention in Sudan which could involved troops helping to distribute aid, lending logistical support to an African Union (AU) protection force or protecting refugee camps from marauding militia.

“We rule nothing out, but we are not at that stage yet,” Blair told a news conference in London.

“What we need to do in the short term is to get the government of Sudan to take the measures necessary to control the militias and to make sure the aid and assistance gets through,” he said.

MILITIA ATTACK REPORTS

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Wednesday that while there were encouraging steps on the humanitarian front, there were continuing reports of militia attacks.

Sudan, in agreement with Annan two weeks ago, has pledged to protect displaced civilians, disarm the Janjaweed and other armed groups, suspend visa and travel restrictions on relief workers and punish those responsible for atrocities.

Seven men convicted of Janjaweed membership were sentenced in a Darfur court to punishments ranging from execution and crucifixion to amputation and imprisonment, a statement from the presiding judge said on Thursday.

Local police said they had detained 100 Janjaweed in recent clashes, official sources said, although a source at an international organisation in Sudan said they were probably only petty looters who had been made scapegoats.

Human rights groups say the Sudanese military and the Janjaweed have worked together to drive people from their homes, but Khartoum says the militiamen are outlaws and must disband.

Khartoum has reluctantly agreed to the deployment of 270 AU troops to protect 60 AU observers who will check violations of a shaky ceasefire signed between the government and rebels in April.

Rebel leaders met AU officials in Geneva on Thursday to discuss restarting stalled peace talks with Khartoum.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Thursday London was pressing the European Union to fund the AU mission and was looking at the possibility of sending an EU joint civilian/military team to “help the African Union plan and mount an effective mission”.

“This may include UK nationals but it will not be a UK military operation,” he said.

Echoing Blair’s call for the international community to assume moral responsibility for Darfur, Pope John Paul sent an emissary to Darfur on Thursday and called for all necessary aid to be given to the region.

(additional reporting by Madeline Chambers in London, Nima ElBagir in Khartoum, Rachel Sanderson in Rome)