No genocide in Darfur, Sudanese minister says
By George Nishiyama
TOKYO, Sept 8 (Reuters) – Sudan’s foreign minister said on Thursday that there was no ethnic cleansing or genocide in the country’s Darfur region and rejected a United Nations estimate that 50,000 people have been killed.
Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said the conflict in Darfur, where rebels are fighting pro-Khartoum Arab militias, was a tribal war and no more than 5,000 people have been killed since the rebel uprising began in February 2003.
“The conflict in Darfur is merely tribal conflict. It is not ethnic cleansing,” Ismail told a news conference in Tokyo.
The rebels say the government supports the militia, known as Janjaweed, to loot and burn African farming villages in a campaign of ethnic cleansing, but Khartoum denies the charge.
Ismail said the government was doing what it can to disarm the Janjaweed, but added that unless the rebels also disarm the conflict could not be settled.
The Darfur rebellion has forced more than 1 million people from their homes in what the United Nations has labelled the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
The United Nations has said Arab militia were still attacking villages despite pledges by the Sudanese government.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called on Khartoum to accept a larger monitoring force from the African Union (AU).
The United States, a leading advocate of sanctions on Sudan, said last week it was preparing a new U.N. resolution but opinion is split among Security Council members on any embargo.
Ismail reiterated that Sudan was open to more monitors, but did not elaborate on whether it would accept them if their mandate is expanded as the United Nations has proposed.
The United Nations has suggested at least 3,000 troops and observers and about 1,000 police but some U.N. officials believe that number is too low. Currently the 53-nation AU has some 400 troops and observers in Darfur.
The U.N. Security Council threatened on July 30 to consider imposing unspecified sanctions on Sudan if it failed to disarm and prosecute the Janjaweed within 30 days.
When the deadline expired last week, the United Nations did not call for sanctions but sought a wider mandate for African monitors to stop abuses.
The rebels are demanding power and wealth sharing measures that echo those sought by other rebels in the south, where there is a truce as talks go on to end 21 years of conflict.
Analysts say the impasse is the result of a lack of diplomatic pressure on the rebels, and government fears that rebel demands for greater autonomy in both the south and the west may eventually threaten the existence of Sudan.