Sudan seeks more African Union forces, EU aid for Darfur

By MOHAMED OSMAN, Associted Press Writer

KHARTOUM, Sudan, Sep 08, 2004 (AP) — Sudan on Wednesday requested more African Union monitors to oversee a truce in strife-torn Darfur, but accused the European Union of doing too little to help civilians suffering in the country’s troubled region where a bloody conflict has raged for 19 months.

Sudan’s approaches to the African and European blocs came as a U.S. drafted resolution circulated among U.N. Security Council members Wednesday threatening punitive action against Sudan’s government, singling out the country’s lucrative oil exports if Khartoum doesn’t end violence in the country’s three Darfur states.

A U.N. spokeswoman, however, provided little positive news for Sudanese authorities trying to prove they are curbing the violence, saying the world body is still receiving reports that fighting has recently forced thousands more African villagers from their homes.

The international community wants the Sudanese government to disarm bands of militiamen, known as the Janjaweed, who have been blamed for driving more than 1 million people from their homes and killing an estimated 30,000 others.

The United States accuses Khartoum’s government of backing the Janjaweed, claims which this country’s government rejects. Instead, authorities here say they have been upping efforts to end the violence and provide humanitarian relief to civilians in the region.

The violence started in February 2003 when two rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement, took up arms, accusing the Arab dominated government in Khartoum of neglect and discrimination.

In Tokyo, Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said Wednesday that he has called on the African Union to send more observers to monitor a rarely adhered April 8 cease-fire between Sudanese authorities and rebels.

Ismail said he made the request during talks with AU commissioner for peace and security, Said Djinnit in Tokyo, on Monday, “to help in the building of confidence and to supervise the cease-fire. I told him that we need them as quickly as possible.”

“Whatever the African Union will suggest, we will adopt it and we will work on it,” Ismail said without elaborating.

The AU has about 80 military observers in Darfur, protected by just over 300 soldiers. The United Nations wants Sudan to allow more than 3,000 troops in the region to help enforce the shaky truce.

The latest U.S.-proposed draft Security Council resolution, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, says the Sudanese government “has failed fully to comply with its (U.N.) commitments” to rein in the Janjaweed and provide security for those who fled their homes.

“The situation in Sudan constitutes a threat to international peace and security and to stability in the region,” says the draft, which does not refer to “sanctions,” a word that had to be dropped from a July 30 Security Council resolution that gave Khartoum 30 days to halt Janjaweed attacks or face diplomatic or economic sanctions.

The new U.S. draft declares that the Security Council will take further action if Sudan’s government or individual members don’t comply with U.N. commitments or if they don’t cooperate with any expanded African Union monitoring mission.

The draft also declares for the first time that “the council will take further actions … including with regard to the petroleum sector.” Sudan began exporting oil in 1999 and is currently producing an estimated 250,000 barrels per day.

The European Union late last week threatened sanctions, including an oil embargo, against Sudan if its government doesn’t rein in the Arab militias.

Sudan’s humanitarian affairs minister, Ibrahim Hamid, on Wednesday criticized the EU threat and called on it to come good with its relief pledges to Darfur.

“The contribution of the European Union in provision of assistance to the displaced persons in Darfur and the affected people has never exceeded 15 percent, despite much talk being raised by EU countries about the situation in Darfur, ” Hamid told reporters.

U.N. spokeswoman Radhia Achouri said the world body “was very concerned about reports of increased fighting in the Yassin area, which led to influx of new internally displaced persons to Kalma Camp and in Gereida, located approximately 95 kilometers (59 miles) south of Nay” in South Darfur state.

Achouri said the International Committee of the Red Cross conducted an assessment in August and found 12,000 new internally displaced people in Gereida, but “when they returned this week to provide food and crucial nonfood items, they discovered that nearly 3,000 (more) persons had now fled to the area.”

She said another 4,000 people had arrived Zam Zam, in North Darfur state, after fleeing fighting in the Tabit area, southwest of the regional capital of al-Fasher. She provided no further details.

Fighting broke last week around the Zam Zam area where the government accuses Darfur rebels of attacking police camps and killing two policemen and injuring 17 others.

Hamid, Sudan’s humanitarian affairs minister, told journalists after meeting an EU delegation that the government had bombarded a rebel camp in response to the attacks on the policemen.