ABOU SHOUK, Sudan, 1 July 2004 — US Secretary of State Colin Powell, disappointed at Sudan’s initial response to his demands on Darfur, called for an end to the militias blamed for the crisis in the region yesterday when he visited some of the one million people displaced by the conflict.

“We all want them (the displaced) to return to their homes and that will require the reestablishment throughout Darfur of security, the end of fighting, the end of the Janjaweed,” Powell told aid workers and Darfuris living in the Abou Shouk camp.

The Janjaweed are the militias who have driven non-Arab villagers off the land in a campaign of ethnic cleansing which human rights groups say is verging on attempted genocide.

UN officials and the rights groups say the Sudanese Army has worked with the Janjaweed but Khartoum says that they are outlaws and that it is determined to disarm them.

Thousands of displaced Darfuris cheered, trilled, clapped their hands and waved their walking sticks to welcome Powell on his 20-minute visit to the camp, which aid workers said was a show case and one of the best in the region.

The camp is only a few miles outside El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, in a region the size of France.

Powell came to Sudan on Tuesday evening to press the government to crack down on the Janjaweed and allow relief groups unrestricted access to the region, which badly needs to receive food and medicine before the rainy season begins.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrived in Khartoum on a similar mission as Powell left for Darfur.

The two leaders have warned Sudan of UN Security Council action. But a senior US State Department official said the Sudanese government did not see the gravity of the humanitarian crisis, which the United Nations calls the worst in the world.

“They are in a state of denial. They are in a state of avoidance. They are trying to obfuscate and avoid any consequences,” said the official, who asked not to be named.

To add to the international pressure, the United States plans to share the draft of a UN Security Council resolution on Darfur with other members in New York, he added.

For most of his flight to Darfur, Powell held talks with Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail on how to deal with the Darfur crisis. In Khartoum on Tuesday evening Powell met Sudanese President Omar Hassan Bashir.

Bashir has promised to disarm the Janjaweed and give the relief organizations access to the region. But the senior US official said: “He (Bashir) has said these things before. We’ll have to see what they actually do.”

Powell drove around El Fasher in a special four-wheel-drive vehicle especially flown in from Washington for his three-hour visit. The Sudanese Army provided an escort in the form of pickup trucks with machine guns mounted on the back.