Sudan prepares litany of charges against Darfur rebels

KHARTOUM, Oct 21 (AFP) — Sudan has reportedly drawn up a list of charges against rebels in the troubled region of Darfur that it hopes to present to the United Nations during a meeting with representatives of the world body.

A member of Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) walks with his rifle at Ashma village 30 km (19 miles) from Nyala, south Darfur, October 6, 2004.

The official Sudanese news agency said Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail will present them along with a report on the government’s compliance with UN Security Council resolutions on the Darfur crisis at a meeting of the Joint Implementation Mechanism.

The JIM was originally formed to follow up on pledges the government made in July to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on improving security and humanitarian conditions in Darfur.

But the mandate of the committee, which comprises representatives from the Sudanese government and the UN, has been expanded to include monitoring Sudan’s compliance with Security Council resolutions.

Ismail will point out during the meeting that a series of recent activities by the rebels in the Darfur region are hampering efforts by the government to deliver on its pledges, according to SUNA.

He told reporters that Darfur rebels continued to violate the terms of the April ceasefire agreement signed in the Chadian capital of Ndjamena.

The foreign minister said the rebels are also “recruiting children” to fight in the 20-month conflict.

He also accused rebels from the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement of “planting mines” in the region, abductions and attacking villages outside their region.

The minister added that the rebels, the JEM in particular, had refused to comply with a ceasefire demand on the cantonment of their forces. He also blamed the rebels for the failure by the parties to sign a protocol on humanitarian access.

Fighting erupted in Darfur 20 months ago, when the rebel movements launched an armed insurrection to protest what they see as the political and economic marginalisation of the region’s black African people by the Arab-led government in Khartoum.

An estimated 70,000 people have died and around 1.4 million have been displaced in Darfur after what UN officials have called a scorched-earth campaign of ethnic cleansing against the region’s black African population.