Rebels seek international troops for Darfur’s humanitarian crisis

CAIRO, July 25 (AFP) — A rebel movement in strife-torn Darfur called Sunday called for a rapid deployment of international troops to combat the humanitarian crisis in the western Sudanese region.

“We are asking the United States, the United Nations secretary general, the European Union and the African Union for the urgent deployment of troops in the coming days to ensure the delivery of food aid to millions of refugees,” rebel spokesman Abdel Wahed Mohammed Nur told AFP.

Contacted by telephone, the spokesman of the Sudan Liberation Armyadded that the intervention would “avert a humanitarian disaster of great proportions”.

The pro-government Arab Janjaweed militias are “preventing the arrival of food aid to displaced people and continue to violate the ceasefire, and they regularly rape defenseless women”, he charged.

The United Nations, describing the humanitarian crisis in Darfur as currently the world’s worst, says up to 50,000 people have died since a revolt against the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum broke out among black African ethnic minorities in February 2003.

More than a million people have been driven from their villages in the conflict pitting government forces and Janjaweed against the SLA and another local rebel group, the Movement for Justice and Equality.

Washington, the United Nations and the EU have demanded that Khartoum immediately disarm the Janjaweed and make them respect a ceasefire signed April 8 after talks in the Chadian capital Ndjamena.

On Thursday the United States put forward a draft UN Security Council resolution authorizing sanctions against Sudan if it does not prosecute Arab militia leaders behind atrocities in Darfur, particularly the Janjaweed.

The same day the US Congress unanimously passed a non-binding resolution describing the atrocities as “genocide” and calling on the White House to lead international efforts to intervene in the region.

Britain is prepared to send 5,000 troops to Darfur if Khartoum asks, armed forces chief General Sir Michael Jackson said Friday.

British Foreign Minister Jack Straw is due to travel to Sudan in late August.

Government spokesman Al-Zahawi Ibrahim Malik told a press conference in Khartoum on Saturday that the government was “serious” in its intention to honor an agreement reached with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on humanitarian and security issues in Darfur.

Malik, who is also information and communication minister, asked foreign diplomats and representatives of international organizations in Khartoum to visit Darfur to “see the situation on the ground,” adding: “We have nothing to hide.”

He accused the United States and Britain of sending “negative signals” to the Darfur rebels that he said had torpedoed negotiations in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa last week.

Khartoum says it has made available some 46,000 tonnes of food and a stock of medicines worth 10 million dollars to displaced people in Darfur that will meet their needs until the end of September.

The government also said some 90,000 displaced people returned to their villages last week, “emptying entire camps”.

Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot, whose country holds the EU’s rotating presidency, told his Sudanese counterpart Mustapha Osman Ismael during a meeting with him in The Hague on Saturday that the situation in Darfur has not sufficiently improved, the Dutch news agency ANP reported.

Bot however said a UN resolution against Sudan was not yet needed.

Sudan’s northern ally Egypt also asked the United States and the United Nations to give Khartoum “the time needed” to honor its commitments in Darfur before imposing sanctions, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said Saturday.

Abul Gheit said Egypt had contacted Security Council members over the issue and warned them about the consequences of rushing through a resolution that could further complicate the situation.