Sudan says no Darfur bombings, U.N. misleading
By Nima Elbagir
KHARTOUM, Aug 11 (Reuters) – Sudan said on Wednesday that U.N. reports of helicopter gunship attacks in its troubled Darfur region were baseless and were misleading public opinion.
The United Nations said in a statement on Tuesday that Arab militia were still attacking some of the more than one million people displaced by fighting in Darfur, and that Sudan had carried out fresh helicopter attacks in south Darfur.
But the U.N. secretary-general’s special representative for Sudan, Jan Pronk, said on Wednesday the U.N. reports were still being checked to see if and where the attacks took place.
Sudanese State Minister of Foreign Affairs Najeeb al-Kheir Abdul Wahab dismissed the reports as “baseless and untrue”.
“We believe that this statement is very vague and it’s sourceless and believe it is inconsistent with the judgment made by the special representative Jan Pronk,” he said.
Pronk said the government was making serious efforts to meet promises made to the United Nations, which include disarming marauding Arab militias known as Janjaweed, who stand accused of looting and burning African farming villages in Darfur.
“So far in all my talks I am meeting a government that is seriously trying to keep the promises made,” he told reporters in Khartoum on Wednesday.
Asked about the reported helicopter attacks, he said: “Attacks, if reported, have to be checked. Whether they took place, where they took place, we are checking that at the moment.”
Sudan is under intense international pressure to rein in the Janjaweed and has less than three weeks to show the U.N. Security Council it is making progress towards security in Darfur. If not, Khartoum could face unspecified sanctions.
Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said the U.N. statements were contradictory and misleading public opinion.
“We have noticed that U.N. statements at the moment are in constant contradiction…each department within it is acting without coordination,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
“This lack of consensus is misleading to public opinion and we would not want the current contradictions to leave the government to rethink its commitment towards the U.N.,” he said.
Two Darfur rebel groups launched a revolt in February last year accusing Khartoum of neglect and of arming the Janjaweed, a term derived from the Arabic for “devils on horseback”, to attack African villages in a campaign of ethnic cleansing.
Khartoum denies the charge, calling the Janjaweed outlaws.
The United Nations estimates the conflict has claimed 50,000 lives and triggered the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Khartoum also disputes the death toll.
(Additional reporting by Opheera McDoom in Cairo)