Sudan army calls U.N. resolution “declaration of war”

KHARTOUM/NAIROBI, August 02, 2004 (dpa) — The Sudanese army has called last week’s U.N. Security Council resolution on the Darfur crisis a “declaration of war”, and it vowed to fight any foreign troops sent into Darfur.

“The Security Council resolution about the Darfur issue is a declaration of war on Sudan and its people,” army spokesman General Mohamed Bashir Suleiman told the pro-government al-Anbaa newspaper’s Monday edition.

“The Sudanese army is now prepared to confront the enemies of Sudan on land, sea and air.”

The army’s position was apparently echoed by the Foreign Ministry, with Minister of State Nageib al-Khair telling reporters his government fully supported the army’s view of the U.N. resolution. The resolution adopted Friday calls on Khartoum to disarm the feared Janjaweed militia within 30 days and to end what is increasingly considered the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, or face sanctions.

Based on estimates of Western governments and humanitarian aid groups, more than 1 million Moslem black Africans have fled their homes in the Darfur region of western Sudan, where the Arab Janjaweed militia is accused of murder, rape, looting and burning of villages. Two rebel groups have been battling the militias.

Last week, the U.S. Agency for International Development said that 30,000 people had been slain, and another 50,000 have died of hunger and disease in the wake of the violence.

The Sudanese government has said that the 30-day U.N. deadline provides too little time for compliance.

“The cabinet regards the period of 30 days given by the Security Council as not logical and difficult to implement,” the Sudanese Foreign Minister Moustafa Osman Ismael told reporters after a cabinet meeting Sunday.

General Suleiman went further in the comments published Monday.

“The U.N. resolution is a decision to go to war and has no moral or humanitarian value. We maintain our right to respond in case of foreign military intervention, and we will not welcome invaders with flowers and flags,” he said.

Later Monday in Washington, a U.S. diplomatic spokesman rejected the Army’s assertion.

“Far from a declaration of war, it calls upon the government of Sudan to fulfill commitments it made,” said U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli. “I don’t see how you can say the international community saying to Sudan, fulfill your obligations, fulfill you commitments, is a declaration of war. It’s holding Sudan to account to the standards that it agreed to.”

In a 13-0 vote with China and Pakistan abstaining, the U.N. Security Council on Friday passed a resolution suggesting that diplomatic relations could be severed and economic sanctions imposed if Khartoum fails to improve its reaction to the Darfur crisis. The resolution gave an initial 30-day deadline but ruled out military intervention.

The resolution allows the council to apply Article 41 of the U.N. Charter, which offers measures such as economic sanctions and severance of diplomatic relations with governments that do not comply with U.N. demands. But Article 41 rules out military intervention.

Earlier Monday, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, who is also currently chairing the African Union (A.U.), said that the regional group must take a lead in resolving the Darfur crisis.

Obasanjo spoke during a brief visit to Khartoum, where he held talks with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

Nigeria is contributing troops to the 300-strong force that the A.U. plans to deploy in Darfur to strengthen the military observer group already on the ground, monitoring a ceasefire between the Janjaweed and Darfur rebel groups.

That ceasefire appeared to be in name only Monday, amid new reports of a rebel attack in southern Darfur, 700 kilometres southwest of Khartoum.

A BBC report said that Darfur rebels over the weekend attacked an Arab village, the alleged home of many Janjaweed members, killing 39 people and wounding dozens.

Western estimates are that 200,000 refugees have fled across the Sudanese border into eastern Chad, while more than 1 million people are displaced within Sudan due to the violence.

In response to the vast humanitarian needs, the World Food Programme (WFP) said Monday that it had begun airdrops of food in the most inaccessible parts of the region.

WFP said that the food would support 70,000 people who had been cut off from aid due to the rainy season and security conditions.

“Dropping food by air is always an expensive last resort, but for many parts of Darfur we simply have no other option at this time of year,” Ramiro Lopes da Silva, WFP’s Country Director in Sudan, said in a statement.

Aid deliveries in Darfur have been repeatedly slowed or interrupted by floods and heavy rains, security problems including looting of aid convoys, and fuel shortages.

Money is also a problem. Out of 349 million dollars that U.N. agencies requested from donors in March, less than half has been received.