Sudan, UN to sign agreement Monday on steps Sudan must take in Darfur
By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 06, 2004 (AP) — The Sudan and the United Nations will sign an agreement on Monday outlining steps the government must take this month to start disarming Arab militias and other outlawed groups and to improve security in the crisis-ridden western region Darfur, the United Nations said Friday.
The agreement reached Wednesday night by Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail and U.N. special representative Jan Pronk “has now been finalized by the Sudanese government,” U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said.
A copy of the agreement was given to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan who was expected to send it to the 15 members of the U.N. Security Council. It was not made public.
“A formal copy will be signed by Mr. Pronk and the foreign minister and officially issued on Monday,” Eckhard said.
But it wasn’t clear whether the Sudanese Cabinet had officially approved the agreement. Officials in Khartoum said the Cabinet was expected to discuss the agreement during a meeting on Sunday.
U.N. associate spokeswoman Denise Cook said Thursday the agreement had to be approved by the Sudanese Cabinet. She said Friday the United Nations was informed that “the Cabinet has okayed the agreement.”
On July 30, the Security Council passed a resolution giving Sudan 30 days to curb pro-government Arab militias known as the Janjaweed, which have been accused of attacking black African farmers in Darfur, killing thousands and driving thousands more from their homes. Otherwise, the council warned that Sudan could face possible diplomatic and economic penalties, which the United States insists will be sanctions.
Cook quoted Pronk as saying that if the agrement is signed and implemented, “he was very hopeful that the Security Council would come to the conclusion that there was indeed substantial progress and that there was no need to consider further action.”
Eckhard said the agreement outlines detailed steps to be taken by Sudan in the next 30 days to disarm the Janjaweed and other outlawed groups, improve security in Darfur, and address the humanitarian crisis.
The United States estimates that up to 30,000 people have been killed in the 17-month conflict and predicts many more deaths between September and December as the rains come, sanitation and water systems collapse and disease spreads. The United Nations says 1 million people have been forced to flee their homes and an estimated 2.2 million people are in urgent need of food, medicine and shelter.
Pronk and Ismail had been meeting since Sunday as part of the Joint Implementation Mechanism which was set up to ensure compliance with commitments made by Sudan and the United Nations in a July 3 agreement aimed at easing the crisis in Darfur.
Sudan’s Ismail said Thursday in Khartoum that foreign military intervention to end the Darfur crisis was unlikely. He said the government “will do our best” to meet Security Council demands to end the region’s violence although he called the resolution “unfair.”
His comments followed a mass state-organized protest on Wednesday to condemn the U.N. resolution.
John Danforth, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Thursday the clock is ticking for Sudan and it must show by the end of the month that it is making “a good faith effort” to comply with the council resolution.
He said council members will be asking if the government is doing anything to disarm the Janjaweed and to protect the civilian population and if it is “unloading bombs from planes, using helicopters to destroy villages, (and) if there is a sense of command and control flowing from the government to the Janjaweed.”