Egypt urges Sudan to implement UN demands on Darfur after FM’s visit

CAIRO, Aug 1 (AFP) — Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit on Sunday renewed an appeal for Sudan to implement a UN Security Council resolution demanding an end to the bloodshed in its Darfur region.

“I hope the Sudanese government deals positively with the latest UN resolution,” Abul Gheit told reporters upon returning to Cairo from a brief visit to Khartoum and the strife-torn region of western Sudan.

Abul Gheit delivered a message to Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak urging his southern neighbour to rein in pro-government Arab militias blamed for many of the atrocities in Darfur.

The Security Council on Friday gave Sudan 30 days to rein in the militias or face international action. It also called on Sudan to honor its pledges to UN chief Kofi Annan to allow a free flow of humanitarian aid.

Up to 50,000 people have been killed and 1.2 million people forced from their homes in Darfur, according to the United Nations.

Khartoum initially warned it would send troops to oppose any foreign military intervention in the region, but officials have reluctantly accepted the UN resolution.

An official Sudanese government response was due later Sunday.

But Abul Gheit, whose country has been urged by the United States to use its influence over neighbouring Sudan to solve the crisis, called on the international community to understand the “difficult situation” in Darfur.

He predicted there would be a “breakthrough” in the next several weeks in Darfur leading to “an improvement of the situation and cooperation between Sudan and the international community”.

The minister said he hoped Khartoum’s decision to send thousands of security forces to the lawless region would enable the government “to bring the situation under control over the next few weeks”.

The United States and other Western powers should remain “objective” in the conflict, Abul Gheit said, adding that he believed the international community wanted to “achieve calm in the region”.

Regional analysts have warned that an escalation of the Darfur conflict could turn Sudan into a new breeding ground for terrorism and cause further instability in the Arab world at large.

Abul Gheit, who during his trip stopped off in El-Fashir, the capital of North Darfur state, and a nearby camp for people who have been driven out of their homes, said he came face-to-face with “suffering” in Darfur.

But the foreign minister did not see evidence of the “gross violations of human rights” or “massacres” reported in the Western media. “I do not think that it is like that,” he said.

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood movement on Sunday called for an Arab summit to discuss the mounting international pressure on Sudan over the Darfur crisis.

“Attempts to intervene come within the framework of the new US strategy to redraw the map of the region and alter its features in a way that would serve Zionist and American interests,” it charged in a statement.

The Brotherhood warned that calls for international action against Sudan also posed a threat to Egypt’s “national security and interests”.