U.N. envoy says lack of security in Darfur impedes return of displaced people

By IBRAHIM ALI SULEIMAN, Associated Press Writer

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Aug 11, 2004 (AP) — The U.N. envoy to Sudan said Wednesday lack of security in strife-torn Darfur would prevent more than 1 million displaced people from voluntarily returning to their homes in the next three weeks.

Jan Pronk, the world body’s special representative to Sudan, urged the government to do more to end the 18-month conflict in western Sudan, which has killed as many as 30,000 people and forced a million to flee their homes.

“I don’t see a voluntary return of more than 1 million displaced people to their villages to start in the next three weeks because of lack of security,” Pronk told reporters in his first news conference since assuming the position June 18.

Pronk described the Darfur situation as a “tragedy” in which people were still being killed, and he demanded the Khartoum-based Arab-dominated government stop violence and question anyone connected with these “terrorist acts.”

The U.N. envoy’s visit to Sudan comes amid intense international efforts to end the Darfur conflict. The fighting began when black African factions rose up against the Sudanese government, claiming discrimination in the distribution of the large, arid region’s scarce resources.

Since then, Arab militias called the Janjaweed and purportedly backed by the government have gone on a rampage, destroying villages, killing and raping.

The United Nations describes the Darfur conflict as the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, and the U.S. Congress and some humanitarian groups have accused Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir’s government of genocide.

On Tuesday, Pronk signed an agreement with Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail giving his government 30 days to establish safe areas in Darfur to let African farmers search for food and water and farm without fear of attack.

But on Wednesday, Pronk sounded pessimistic about the government’s ability to meet its commitments.

U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said Pronk also attended the start of a two-day conference Wednesday in Khartoum to review a draft law on the native administration of Darfur’s three states. Attendees at the talks included Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir and Darfur tribal leaders.

Sudanese government and rebel officials have indicated they will attend a new round of peace talks set for Aug. 23 in Nigeria, Nigerian officials said. Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo is the current chairman of the African Union.

“I am sure all the groups will come,” Nigerian Foreign Minister Olu Adeniji said.

The two sides will discuss disarming the Arab militiamen blamed for much of the violence in Darfur, an African Union spokesman said Wednesday.

The Aug. 23 talks may also focus on a proposal to send a beefed-up peacekeeping force to Darfur to ensure compliance with an earlier cease-fire.

Last week, the African Union’s executive body said it would scale up a deployment of troops to monitor the cease-fire to 1,800 instead of a so-called protection force of just 300, which Sudan had already accepted.

The United Nations said Tuesday the Janjaweed was continuing to attack in Darfur and was even using helicopter gunships.

But the Sudanese army denied it had resumed air attacks in Darfur, saying in a statement the armed forces were adhering to an April 8 cease-fire agreement.

Pronk said the Darfur crisis needed to be solved politically through mediation among different parties. “Solving the crisis from within, (and) without foreign intervention is very important,” he said.

On Wednesday, the first shipment of World Food Program aid bound for Darfur’s displaced people arrived in the Libyan port of Benghazi. The shipment, about 500 tons of wheat flour from Switzerland, will be hauled by 17 trucks through the Libyan desert to neighboring Chad beginning Sunday.