EU urges Sudan to follow international requests on Darfur

KHARTOUM, Oct 13 (AFP) — A delegation of European Union officials urged the Sudanese government during visit to Khartoum to abide by the international community’s requests for solving the crisis in the Darfur region.

Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot (2L) and Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asslborn (L) speak with Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir (R) with the help of a translator (C) in Khartoum.(AFP)

“What is important is that the Sudanese government adopt an open attitude towards the suggestions being made by the international community,” said Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot, whose country currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency.

He was speaking to reporters after meetings with Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir and Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail.

Bot, accompanied by Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn and EU representative Anders Henrikson, had reiterated on Monday threats of sanctions against Khartoum if it failed to rein in its militias in the war-torn western region.

The EU this week issued a renewed sanctions threat against Khartoum over the Darfur crisis, which has left some 50,000 people dead, displaced an estimated 1.4 million and forced a further 200,000 into neighbouring Chad.

The conflict in Darfur erupted in February 2003 when rebels rose up against the government, whom they accuse of neglecting their region and using Arab tribesmen called Janjaweed as proxies.

On Tuesday, the Sudanese foreign ministry summoned the European Union’s delegation chief in Khartoum in protest.

“The Sudanese government should continue to feel the pressure from as many sides as possible,” Bot told reporters this week. It is very important that the threat of sanctions be maintained.”

Ismail said Tuesday Khartoum would welcome any international fact-finding effort on Darfur “but at the same time, we reject a visit by any official with the aim of threatening and pressuring the Sudan.”

Ismail also said the government was making arrangements to implement demands over Darfur that British Prime Minister Tony Blair made in Khartoum last week.

He said he met Monday with Interior Minister Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein, who is also the president’s representative in Darfur.

The British premier held talks with Beshir on October 6 and obtained five promises from Khartoum.

He demanded that the African Union troop contingent be boosted, that the government provide the locations of its troops in Darfur, pull them back in conjunction with a rebel withdrawal, commit to an overall peace agreement for Sudan by the end of 2004 and abide by signed UN humanitarian protocols.

The AU currently has about 300 soldiers in Darfur to protect some 150 observers monitoring a fragile ceasefire struck in April between Khartoum and Darfur rebel groups.

The Security Council passed a resolution in September threatening sanctions against Sudan’s vital oil industry, saying the government had failed to rein in the Janjaweed militias.

Earlier this month the EU said it would wait for a green light from the United Nations before deciding whether to impose sanctions. Bot stressed Wednesday there was no deadline for such sanctions.

The Sudanese and EU leaders also discussed the peace process in the south which is aimed at putting an end the longest-running war in Africa.

Khartoum and the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), led by John Garang, are in the final stage of negotiations to end to the civil war that started in 1983 and has killed nearly one and a half million people.