UN Says Sudan Undertakes to Disarm Darfur Militias
Fri Jul 2, 7:54 PM ET Add World - Reuters to My Yahoo!
By Opheera McDoom
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) said Friday Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir had undertaken to disarm Arab militias who have driven more than one million Africans from their homes in the remote Darfur region.
"(Al-Bashir has made a commitment) to ensure security for the civilian population by deploying civilian police and by disarming militias," Annan after talks in Khartoum, highlighting what the U.N. says is the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said Sudan would deploy more forces to rein in the militias, known as Janjaweed, as well as rebels who launched a revolt last year accusing Khartoum of arming the militias. Khartoum denies the charge.
"We still say we need to do more on the security. (The interior minister) is going to deploy 6,000 police in Darfur," Ismail said.
Talks went on after Annan and Ismail spoke to reporters and a joint communique is due to be issued Saturday on future action over the vast western region, which the U.N. fears could be gripped by widespread famine.
Washington, which sent Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) to Khartoum this week, and rights groups say the Janjaweed are carrying out an ethnic cleansing campaign in an area where tensions run high between nomadic Arabs and African farmers.
One of the two main rebel groups, the Justice and Equality Movement, said government warplanes bombed near Southern Darfur state's capital Nyala and militias burned villages Thursday, while Annan was visiting refugee camps further north.
AFRICAN UNION MONITORS
Ismail said the government had flown in African Union monitors who were investigating, but the information they had was that the rebels had burned the villages.
Both Annan and Ismail said security was vital before the displaced could return to their homes, although the mostly African farmers fear they will starve in the next year having missed the chance to plant their crops before the rainy season.
Annan said the United Nations (news - web sites) was quickly stepping up its aid operations with help from the Sudanese government.
"By the end of this month we will be able to feed a million people," Annan said.
Aid agencies estimate more than two million people are caught up in the fighting, and that some 200,000 refugees are in neighboring Chad.
Darfur, an area the size of France, has few roads and little infrastructure. The rainy season increases the threat of malaria and helps disease spread in the refugee camps.
Annan said there was concern militias moving across the border into Chad may destabilize oil-producing Sudan's impoverished neighbor.
"In a country that is just beginning to get its economic and social development off the ground, the situation is fragile and one should not have to deal with that kind of crisis," he said, hours after returning from refugee camps in eastern Chad.
Chad mediated a cease-fire between the rebels and the government in April, but both sides have since accused each other of violations.
The African Union said after a meeting in Chad Friday that it had invited Khartoum and the rebels to peace talks in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa later this month.
"We invite all parties to begin political negotiations on July 15 in Addis Ababa," said African Union Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare.
Sudanese Interior Minister Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein has said talks with the rebels would start in Chad Friday.
The Justice and Equality Movement said it would not attend talks in Chad because of government cease-fire violations. Chad was not a fair mediator, it said.
The other main rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Movement, said it was unaware of any talks.
(Additional reporting by Nima Elbagir and Betel Miarom in N'Djamena)
: LOL Geez, lost the :cof:
