Sudan’s FM says more monitors needed in Darfur “as soon as possible”
By NATALIE OBIKO PEARSON, Associated Press Writer
TOKYO, Sep 8, 2004 (AP) — Sudan has asked the African Union to deploy more monitors to help oversee a truce in the troubled region of Darfur “as soon as possible,” the Sudanese foreign minister said Wednesday.
Mustafa Osman Ismail said he met AU Commissioner for Peace and Security Said Djinnit in Tokyo on Monday and requested that African nations boost the number of observers monitoring the April 8 cease-fire between Sudanese authorities and two rebel groups.
“I told him we needed more African monitors to come and to help in the building of confidence and to supervise the cease-fire. I told him that we need them as quickly as possible,” Ismail, who is in Japan on five-day visit, told reporters in Tokyo.
Ismail said Djinnit promised to present a formal proposal to the Sudanese government when he returns to Africa, outlining which countries could deploy more monitors and when.
The AU currently has about 80 military observers in Darfur, protected by just over 300 soldiers. The United Nations has called on Sudan to allow more than 3,000 troops in the region to help enforce the shaky truce.
“In short, Sudan is open. Whatever the African Union will suggest, we will adopt it and we will work on it,” Ismail said without elaborating.
The Sudanese government has been under intense international pressure to do more to end the violence in the country’s western Darfur region. 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.
The United States is expected later Wednesday to introduce a draft of a new U.N. Security Council resolution aimed at getting Sudan to end the bloodshed.
The council passed a resolution July 30 giving Sudan 30 days to disarm the Janjaweed or face possible diplomatic or economic sanctions. The deadline was later extended.
When asked about the resolution, Ismail said, “Any resolution coming from the U.N. Security Council that would help, we would welcome.”
Both Ismail and Djinnit are in Japan on invitations from the Foreign Ministry and are scheduled to leave Japan Thursday.