Sudan blames Darfur rebels for foreign pressure
By Opheera McDoom
KHARTOUM, Oct 5 (Reuters) – Under fire from the United Nations over continued violence in Darfur, Sudan’s government on Tuesday accused rebels of trying to increase international pressure on Khartoum.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a report to the Security Council on Monday the Sudan government had made no progress since last month in stopping attacks on civilians or punishing those behind atrocities in Darfur.
But Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail pointed the finger at rebels operating in the troubled region.
“They want to give a message to the international community that the situation is deteriorating and that the international community should continue putting pressure on the government of Sudan,” Ismail told reporters in Khartoum.
He welcomed Libyan plan to host a summit of African leaders and officials from the Khartoum government and Darfuri rebels to spur on talks aimed at ending the conflict.
A Libyan government source said Tripoli would host the meeting on Oct. 15 or 17, including the leaders of Chad and Egypt — which like Libya border Sudan — as well as Nigeria, which has hosted Darfur peace talks in its capital Abuja.
“It is clear that the summit will concentrate on the issue of Darfur and work to make the Abuja talks succeed,” Ismail said.
Khartoum has reported increased rebel attacks on villages and government posts in Darfur in the past two weeks or so, saying guerrillas, who launched their uprising in February 2003, were trying to ratchet up international pressure.
The U.N. Security Council has threatened Sudan with possible sanctions if it fails to stop the violence in Darfur, which the United Nations says has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
“Today, still increasing numbers of the population of Darfur are exposed, without any protection from the government, to hunger, fear and violence,” Annan said in a report, which was drafted by his special representative for Darfur, Jan Pronk.
Pronk was to brief the council on the report on Tuesday.
BLAIR VISIT
Ismail said Britain, the former colonial power, could push all sides to reach an agreement at peace talks in Nigeria due to reconvene on Oct. 21, after an earlier round of talks in Abuja collapsed last month.
The foreign minister was speaking before a visit by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, due to arrive in Khartoum on Wednesday, becoming the most senior Western government official to visit the country since the Darfur conflict erupted.
Ismail also said he hoped for more aid for reconstruction from Britain, one of the biggest aid donors to Darfur.
After years of skirmishes between Arab nomadic tribes and mainly non-Arab farmers over scarce resources, rebels launched their revolt accusing Khartoum of neglect and supporting Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, to loot and burn African villages.
The United States has called the violence genocide. But Sudan has dismissed the charge and denies supporting the Janjaweed militiamen, calling them outlaws.
Rebels in west Sudan have called for power and wealth to be shared more equally in Africa’s largest country.
The western rebels were partly inspired to revolt after Khartoum turned to negotiations to try to end another conflict in southern Sudan.
But the minister who headed Khartoum’s delegation to the Abuja talks ruled out self-rule for Darfur, saying its rebels would not win concessions like those agreed in peace talks on conflict in southern Sudan.
“There will be no question about power-sharing or wealth-sharing… There will be never be self-government in Darfur,” Agriculture Minister Majzoub al-Khalifa said.
As part of a preliminary southern peace deal, the government has agreed on sharing power and splitting Sudan’s southern oil wealth. Talks to finalise that deal resume in Kenya on Thursday.
Aid workers in Chad, directly across the border with Darfur, said tens of thousands more refugees could arrive, joining about 200,000 the United Nations says have already settled there.
“Recent arrivals say that there are thousands more who want to come to Chad but have been obstructed by the Sudanese army and the Janjaweed,” UNHCR spokesman Eduardo Cue said in the Chadian town of Abeche.
Violence in Darfur has killed an estimated 50,000 people and forced 1.3 million more from their homes, mostly into camps within government-held areas of Darfur or Chad.
(Additional reporting by Silvia Aloisi in Abeche, Salah Sarrar in Tripoli and Andrew Cawthorne in London)