US says Darfur truce violations continue, hails Nigerian troop deployment

WASHINGTON, Oct 28 (AFP) — The United States said it is still getting reports of violations of a shaky ceasefire in Darfur and hailed the first deployment of an expanded African truce-monitoring force as “essential” to restoring security in Sudan’s troubled western region.

U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Janmichael Ostertag notes the weight of cargo and passengers before loading up a U.S. military plane in the Nigerian capital Abuja on October 28, 2004.

Washington, which provided military transport planes to fly the 47 Nigerian soldiers at the vanguard of the expanded African Union (AU) force from Abuja to the town of El Fasher in Darfur, said it was troubled by persistent claims of truce violations on each side of the conflict.

“There continue to be allegations of attacks in Darfur by both the rebels and the government of Sudan,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

“We know from their previous reports that both rebels and government have instigated and supported such attacks in the past, including the recent past, and that the government of Sudan has played a particularly egregious role by supporting the Janjaweed militia,” he said.

“Because these allegations continue to come in, even if they haven’t been investigated yet, it has to be our presumption that such attacks have continued,” Boucher told reporters.

The Khartoum government and the Darfur region’s two rebel movements agreed to a truce in April this year but both sides accuse the other of repeated ceasefire violations, complicating peace talks taking place in the Nigerian capital and delaying the deployment of the expanded AU force.

After initially resisting the idea of a neutral force, Khartoum demanded that incoming soldiers undergo HIV/AIDS screening and had placed bureaucratic barriers in the way of using US transport planes.

But earlier Thursday, the US Air Force flew the first wave of reinforcements in to Darfur to join some 150 Nigerian and 150 Rwandan soldiers who have been there since August.

“Today is the beginning of that deployment that we think is very important to help stabilize the security situation and bring some safety to the people of Darfur,” Boucher said, adding that two US C-130 transport planes would be moving more troops, other personnel and equipment over the next two weeks.

Eventually, three Nigerian companies plus support staff are to form a 770-strong battalion which will be part of a planned 3,250-strong African Union force that will include more soldiers from Rwanda and troops from Gambia, Tanzania, South Africa, Egypt and Algeria.

The pro-Khartoum Janjaweed militia have been blamed for atrocities against African farmers in Darfur, including massacres, rape and destruction of villages, which the United States has branded a genocide. The UN Security Council has threatened to impose sanctions against Sudan unless it reins in them.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in Darfur and 1.4 million people have fled their homes since the two rebel groups rose up against Khartoum in February 2003 to protest the alleged marginalization of their region.