EU concerned by violations of ceasefire in Sudan’s Darfur

By Opheera McDoom

KHARTOUM, Oct 24 (Reuters) – The EU expressed concern on Sunday at breaches of a ceasefire in Darfur and urged the Sudan government to unilaterally sign protocols on allowing aid access in the region, despite the refusal so far of rebels to do so.

Sudan Liberation Army rebels from different bases come together for a meeting in Tarenjer village, west Darfur, October 11, 2004.

“We are concerned by breaches of the ceasefire which are taking place by everybody,” EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana told reporters in Khartoum during a two-day visit to the Sudanese capital.

“We are concerned about movement of helicopters also that belong to the government,” he added.

“If the ceasefire is broken it would be very difficult to fix it.”

He said the EU was also concerned about humanitarian access and a culture of impunity regarding human rights abuses in the remote western Darfur region, where about 1.5 million people have fled their homes and live in displaced camps.

Sources in the aid community in Darfur reported heavy bombardment in North Darfur state last week as clashes between government and rebels intensified across all three Darfur states. African Union monitors are investigating the reports.

Peace talks are due to start on Monday in the Nigerian capital Abuja. In the previous round, talks collapsed after rebels refused to sign humanitarian protocols agreed on by all sides. The rebels said the talks broke down because the government failed to disarm Arab militias.

Solana said Khartoum should sign the agreements without waiting for the rebels. “In a gesture of goodwill in building confidence, I would recommend that the government sign the humanitarian protocols,” he said.

Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail praised the idea and said the government would try to do this.

“The request to sign unilaterally the humanitarian protocol in Abuja is a good suggestion and we will try to pursue it,” he told the joint news conference.

Solana said he had written to the Darfur rebel leaders urging them to cooperate at talks and respect the ceasefire.

EU FUNDING

Solana arrived in Khartoum on Saturday night from the African Union (AU) headquarters in Addis Ababa, where he said the EU would provide more than half the funding for an expanded AU observer mission in Darfur. The U.S. air force is to begin airlifting AU troops into Darfur this week.

Some 150-odd AU ceasefire monitors are already in Darfur’s towns, along with more than 300 troops to protect them. Observers say they are overwhelmed by reports of breaches of the ceasefire.

The expanded mission will add more than 3,000 personnel, with a wider mandate, to be deployed in camps and to monitor Sudanese police.

Dutch Foreign Minister Foreign Bernard Bot, during a visit earlier this month, said the EU had given Sudan about two months to stop the violence in Darfur and implement U.N. Security Council resolutions. Otherwise, the EU could impose sanctions.

Solana said EU policy had not changed, and that there were still some positive changes the EU wanted Sudan to make.

The United Nations has threatened Sudan with sanctions unless it stops the Darfur violence, which it says has triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. The United States has branded it genocide.

The U.N. estimates place the death toll from malnutrition and disease at 70,000 since March. There are no reliable estimates for those killed in the fighting.

After years of conflict between Arab nomads and mostly non-Arab farmers over scarce resources in arid Darfur, rebels took up arms early last year. They accuse Khartoum of using Arabic-speaking militias known as Janjaweed to loot and burn non-Arab villages, a charge Khartoum denies.