Sudan says West exploits Darfur crisis for own ends
BEIRUT, Aug 11 (Reuters) – Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir accused the United States and Europe of exploiting violence in western Sudan for their own ends and said they were not interested in the wellbeing of people in Darfur.
“America and Europe have aims that do not include the safety and comfort of people in Darfur,” Bashir said in an interview published in Lebanon’s al-Mustaqbal on Wednesday.
“The Darfur issue is being blown up by people who do not want stability in Sudan but target the country instead.”
He said Sudan was the victim of a media campaign aimed at diverting attention from violence in Iraq and the Palestinian territories.
“Yes, there is killing, displacement and migration but is the Darfur issue the only issue in the world? What about Palestine and Iraq?” Bashir said.
After years of conflict between Arab nomads and African farmers over scarce resources in arid Darfur, rebels launched a revolt in February 2003, accusing Khartoum of arming Arab militias known as Janjaweed to drive farmers from their land. one million people have been displaced and two million need aid.
Humanitarian groups say Sudanese forces and Arab militiamen recently carried out helicopter attacks, raids on refugee camps and rapes, worsening an already desperate situation in Darfur. The United Nations has told Khartoum to curb the marauding Janjaweed militia or face sanctions. The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday that fresh atrocities disproved Sudanese government claims that security was returning to the area. Bashir told al-Mustaqbal that what rebels and rights groups said was a campaign organised by Khartoum to crush the uprising and drive Darfur’s non-Arab people from their land, was a decades-old dispute between “farmers and herders”.
“We believe the unjustified escalation of this problem by world media and international organisations and its portrayal totally conflicts with the reality and springs from political positions and interests,” he said. In a July 30 resolution, the U.N. Security Council gave Khartoum 30 days to take measures against the Janjaweed. Khartoum denies using the militia as a proxy force and says they are outlaws.
Bashir said he did not oppose the deployment of French troops in Chad near the border with Sudan provided they stayed out of Sudan. Sudan has said it will not allow foreign troops acting as peacekeepers to enter the country.
France has sent some 200 troops to Chad to help refugees in the frontier region and watch for incursions by Arab militias.
“The deployment of some of (France’s) troops…near the border between Sudan and Chad happened inside Chad’s territories and we do not see it as the start of foreign troop intervention in Sudan,” Bashir said. “Sudan’s position on the entry of any foreign forces into its territory is very clear.”