Libya offers to host conference on Darfur crisis

CAIRO, Aug 12 (AFP) — Libya has offered to host a conference aimed at ending the crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region and including all the parties involved, Foreign Minister Abdelrahman Shalgham told an Egyptian daily published Thursday.

In an interview with Al-Ahram, Shalgham said he “called African Union commission chairman Alpha Oumar Konare to propose that Libya host a widened conference with the parties involved in Darfur.”

He did not elaborate on the participants nor did he specify a date.

“The 30 days granted to the Sudanese government by the Security Council are not enough. A realistic delay is needed to allow disarmament and the supply of humanitarian aid,” he told the newspaper.

The UN Security Council on July 30 passed a resolution giving Khartoum 30 days to crack down on the pro-government Arab Janjaweed militias, who have been accused of committing war crimes against Darfur’s black Africans.

However, the UN’s envoy in Sudan on Tuesday reached a deal with Khartoum giving a 30-day delay starting with the signing of the plan which he said could be renewed and amended.

Shalgham also warned against any foreign plan to send peacekeeping troops to Darfur, describing such an option as a “catastrophe” which could result in another Iraq-type conflagration.

Talks to be attended by the Sudanese government and rebel groups are scheduled to take place on August 23 in Nigeria, which currently chairs the African Union.

The AU is sending a small 300-strong contingent to protect ceasefire monitors later this month, but also has plans to boost its forces and dispatch 2,000 peacekeepers.