Sudan vows to restore order to Darfur but calls for African peacekeepers
ABUJA, Aug 17 (AFP) — Sudan will take the lead in restoring order to its rebellious Darfur region but needs the support of African peacekeepers and humanitarian aid, Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said.
Ismail told journalists in the Nigerian capital Abuja that Khartoum would double the number of its own police in the western region to 20,000, but also called on Nigeria and the African Union to help end the crisis.
And for the first time, the senior Sudanese official confirmed the United Nations’ estimate that one million people have become vulnerable to famine and violence since fighting erupted in Darfur last year.
“The war in Darfur, we never started it. It was imposed on us by the rebels who should be held responsible for all the negative impacts,” he said, six days before Abuja is due to host a Darfur peace conference.
“But at the same time, we believe that the government has a responsibility to restore law, order and security,” he added.
“Now we’ve about 40,000 troops — army soldiers — in Darfur plus about 10,000 police and we’re going to increase the police up to maybe 20,000.”
Previously, Sudanese leaders have played down reports from UN agencies about the worsening situation in Darfur, which the international body has dubbed the “world’s worst humanitarian crisis”, but Ismail confirmed one UN figure.
“The total of those who are vulnerable and been affected by the war is about one million,” he said, explaining that not all of those at risk had fled to refugee camps but that some were still living in exposed villages.
Ismail asked Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo, host of Monday’s peace conference and chairman of the African Union, for trucks, planes, food and the immediate deployment of an initial batch of 150 Nigerian troops.
The Nigerian troops are due to arrive in Sudan at the weekend in order to join 150 Rwandans and form the vanguard of what the African Union hopes will be a 2,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force.
It is not yet clear, however, whether Sudan will accept the larger force, which the African Union and international observers believe will be neccessary to ensure the safe delivery of aid and disarmament of Darfur’s militias.
The minister said that he had conveyed to Obasanjo the “commitment and readiness” of the Sudanese government to participate in Monday’s talks, to which Darfur’s rebel leaders have also been invited.
“Our wish is that the talks will lead us to a final, fair and justifiable resolution of the problem,” he said.
Speaking earlier, Obasanjo said: “The meeting of August 23 is very important. My own belief is that whatever we do as the AU in Darfur must satisfy the yearnings of the people of Darfur and the government of Sudan.”
“Dealing seriously with the issue of disarmament will help the process. After disarmament and demobilisation, we must think of reintegrating the rebels and various militia back into civil society,” he added.
“Then, we must find a politcal solution to a political problem,” he said.
The United Nations estimates that up to 50,000 people have been killed since Sudan’s armed forces and the Janjaweed militia cracked down on minority tribes backing a rebellion, which erupted in Darfur in February 2003.
UN member states have threatened to impose unspecified sanctions on Khartoum if it fails to disarm the Janjaweed, while the African Union has taken the lead in diplomatic moves to bring the parties to the negotiating table.
Ismail is due to leave Nigeria for Chad later Tuesday, after meeting on Monday with Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, officials said. Chad has a long border with Darfur and has received tens of thousands of refugees.
“The aim of the visit is to acquaint them (African leaders) with what is going on in Darfur and to put them in the right picture about the situation there … our plan to restore normalcy,” Ismail said.