Sudanese minister says Darfur peace deal expected early next year

By JONATHAN FOWLER, Associated Press Writer

GENEVA, Dec 7, 2004 (AP) — Sudanese authorities hope to sign a peace deal with rebels from the country’s conflict-ravaged Darfur region early next year, a government minister said Tuesday.

Women collect water at a communal pump in Kekabiya, in Sudan’s North Darfur state, November 17, 2004. (Reuters).

Mohamed Yousif, Sudan’s minister of humanitarian affairs, dismissed widespread assertions of government involvement in a vicious militia campaign against civilians in the western region.

“We’re trying to solve the Darfur issue through political negotiations, not armed conflict,” Yousif told reporters on the sidelines of a visit to U.N. offices in Geneva.

“We expect to sign an agreement in Darfur within two months,” he said.

The main rebel groups involved in the Darfur conflict have been in talks with Sudan government representatives in Abuja, Nigeria. Those talks led to a Nov. 9 cease-fire agreement, but both sides have since accused the other of violating that truce.

“I hope the Darfur situation becomes like that in the south, where the rebels have committed themselves seriously to cease-fire,” he said, referring to separate talks with other anti-government groups that are expected in weeks to result in a formal end to a 21-year civil war in southern Sudan.

The Darfur conflict, which the United Nations describes as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, followed years of low-level strife between farmers and herders over shrinking land and water resources in the arid region.

Open warfare erupted in February 2003 when rebels took up arms against what they saw as years of state neglect and discrimination against non-Arab Sudanese.

The government has been blamed by human rights groups for launching a counterinsurgency in coordination with the Janjaweed, an Arab militia, accused of committing wide-scale abuses against Darfur’s population.

More than 70,000 people have died and at least 1.8 million have fled their homes to escape the campaign of murder, rape and arson.

“In a situation of war, human rights violations are there,” said Yousif. “No one is denying there are violations,” but they are not orchestrated by the government, he said.

“The issue of the Janjaweed has been used by the rebels to build up their case,” Yousif said.

A U.N. Security Council resolution adopted in September demanded the Janjaweed be disarmed and its leaders brought to justice.

Yousif said he was “not sure” how many militia members have been arrested since then.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a report Monday that the government has given no indication that Janjaweed leaders have been arrested. It also has failed to present a plan to collect weapons, Annan said.

Acting against the Janjaweed is difficult in the rugged region which has “a culture of violence,” Yousif claimed. “These are armed bandits, and the government has no control.”