UN rights observers set to monitor disarmament of Darfur militias

GENEVA, Aug 6, 2004 (AFP) — A team of United Nations observers will be in place in Sudan’s Darfur region by the end of the week, partly to monitor the disarmament of militias accused of a reign of terror there, a UN spokesman said Friday.

“We should have all our observers deployed in the region within the next few days,” said UN human rights spokesman Jose Diaz.

The eight observers will feed information to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on the Sudanese government’s progress in disarming the Janjaweed militia, he added.

The process is a cornerstone of a plan agreed by the UN and Khartoum Thursday, following a UN Security Council resolution last week threatening international action unless Khartoum reins in the militias within 30 days.

The UN estimates that up to 50,000 people have died since rebels launched an uprising early last year to demand an end to what they see as discrimination against non-Arab ethnic minorities in Darfur.

They team will also try to ensure greater protection for more than one million people who fled their homes during the ensuing crackdown by Sudanese government forces and the allied Janjaweed militia in the region, Diaz said.