Japan’s FM says aid to Sudan possible if fighting there subsides

TOKYO, Sep 6, 2004 (AP) — Japan’s foreign minister said Monday that Tokyo would consider extending aid to Sudan, but only if fighting in the Darfur region dies down.

Yoriko Kawaguchi proposed aid during talks with the country’s foreign minister, Mustafa Osman Ismail, a Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

Although Kawaguchi didn’t elaborate, she sought to push the Sudanese government to honor an April 8 cease-fire deal with two rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement, the spokesman said on condition of anonymity.

The Sudanese government has been under intense international pressure to do more to end the violence in the country’s west. Arab militias called Janjaweed are blamed for attacks in the region that have killed about 30,000 people and forced more than 1.2 million to flee their homes, creating what the United Nations has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

During his discussions with Kawaguchi, Ismail blamed armed anti-government rebels for the attacks.

Ismail, who arrived in Tokyo on Sunday for a five-day visit — the first by Sudan’s top diplomat — said his government would welcome news agencies, human rights organizations and an increased number of foreign cease-fire monitors in crisis-torn Darfur, according to the ministry spokesman.

The United Nations has called on the Sudanese government to allow more than 3,000 peacekeeping troops into Darfur, but Khartoum has yet to agree.

A July 30 U.N. Security Council resolution gave the government 30 days to work to disarm the Janjaweed or face possible diplomatic or economic sanctions. U.N. officials then extended the deadline.

Japan sent Sudan US$1.17 million (euro 97,023) in grants and funding for technology-related projects in 2002, the most recent year for which Japanese government statistics are available.