KHARTOUM, 9 May 2004 — Sudanese officials yesterday strongly denied UN charges of ethnic cleansing in the war-torn western region of Darfur and accused Western donors of fanning the crisis by withholding development aid.

State Foreign Minister Najeib Al-Khair Abdel Wahab insisted that the root cause of the fighting that has seen more than a million people driven from their homes was not the actions of government-sponsored Arab militias but a conflict over resources with the indigenous non-Arab minorities of the increasingly arid region.

“The situation in Darfur is neither that of ethnic cleansing nor mass genocide. It is primarily a case of resource conflict,” Abdel Wahab told AFP. He blamed the European Union and the United States for aggravating the humanitarian crisis, which the United Nations has described as the worst in the world, by imposing economic sanctions and blocking development aid for Sudan’s underdeveloped regions.

“Those sanctions primarily constituted a punishment to the regions in the Sudan, including Darfur, where development assistance and operations have ceased.”

He also said President Omar Bashir had formed a fact-finding commission to probe alleged violations of human rights in the region. The commission was established Friday and consisted of prominent “independent” legal experts including former Chief Justice Dafaallah Al-Haj Yusuf.

The Sudanese minister said he had pressed his complaint in a meeting yesterday with a troika of European diplomats made up of the Dutch charge d’affaires, the British ambassador and the EU representative.

He said he had asked the diplomats to persuade their governments to contribute to overcoming the development problems which he regarded as “the main cause of the conflict and fighting.” “The problem of Darfur will not be resolved by denunciations and slogans but by enlightened consciousness and positive contribution to finding appropriate solutions,” he said. Abdel Wahab’s comments were echoed by the governor of North Darfur, one of three states that make up the region.

In remarks published in the Khartoum press yesterday, Osman Yusuf Kibir rejected charges that government-sponsored militias had launched a “reign of terror” against the indigenous Fur, Massalit and Zaghawa minorities since two rebel groups began an uprising early last year. Kibir insisted the only systematic abuses were the work of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement and Justice and Equality Movement.

The region had seen “individual unlawful acts by gangs of outlaws in addition to human rights violations perpetrated by the rebels for which we have evidence,” he said.

The Sudanese officials’ comments flew in the face of evidence presented to the Security Council on Friday by top UN officials. Acting UN human rights chief Bertrand Ramcharan told the council the Sudanese government was conducting a “reign of terror” and “repeated war crimes and crimes against humanity” by supporting Arab militia who have been driving the non-Arab minorities out of the region.

In a damning report released in Geneva, Ramcharan noted repeated attacks by militia and Sudanese troops on villages, including air raids and killings targeting men and boys. An estimated one million people have been displaced inside the country, and a UN report this week said the government was deliberately starving some. More than 100,000 others have fled across the border into Chad.

An international mission led by the African Union was due to head to Darfur yesterday to monitor an April 8 cease-fire agreement between the government and the rebels. The mission, which also includes EU and US representatives as well as delegates from the two sides, was due to be protected by military observers from Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Namibia, Mozambique and Algeria. It was expected to set up base in Al-Fashir, capital of North Darfur State.

Meanwhile, the Sudanese government and rebels from the south of Africa’s largest country expect to sign an agreement in days to end a 21-year civil war, a senior Sudanese official told Reuters yesterday.

Talks between Khartoum and the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army have been complicated by issues of oil, ethnicity and ideology, and a separate conflict in Darfur. “We are anticipating an agreement to be signed within the coming week as (First Vice President) Ali Osman (Mohamed Taha) is due back (in Khartoum) by next Saturday,” said the official who asked not to be named.

The official said Taha would return to chair a body to be formed when the deal is signed to help the government implement the agreement. Mediators said on Friday the two sides had pledged to reach an agreement in the coming days to end the war.