Sudan applying UN security plan to the letter: minister

KHARTOUM, Aug 19 (AFP) — Sudan is applying the United Nations security plan in the war-torn region of Darfur to the letter, the press on Thursday quoted State Minister for the Interior Ahmed Mohammed Haroun as saying.

Under an agreement signed with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in July, Sudan undertook to end attacks on civilians in Darfur, disarm the pro-government Janjaweed militia, restore order and security to the region and ensure that international aid gets through to the refugee camps in the area.

“The state has applied its security plan 100 per cent,” Haroun was quoted as telling journalists in the North Darfur State capital El-Fasher.

The minister said the leading UN envoy in Khartoum, Jan Pronk, was to make a statement on the situation in western Sudan to the UN Security Council meeting next Tuesday.

He also stressed that the UN demands to be met by Sudan by the end of August if it is to avoid international sanctions centred on “the establishment of safe zones” and Khartoum had already produced a list of 11 such areas where refugees could be harboured safe from militia attacks.

“North Darfur is totally secure,” he said, adding that “(ceasefire) violations by the rebels have no effect on security or on the stability in the region”.

Details of the ceasefire violations had been forwarded to the African Union Commission, he added.

“The lines of communication are secure throughout the region” of North Darfur, he said, and the fact that government forces had plenty of “room for manoeuvre” in the area was “a sign of the return of securtiy and stability” in the region.

The United Nations estimates that up to 50,000 people have been killed since Sudan’s armed forces and the militias cracked down on non-Arab minorities supporting the rebels.

Well over a million more people have fled their homes, with up to 200,000 seeking refuge in neighbouring Chad.