ADDIS ABABA, 28 July 2004 — Washington is using the Darfur crisis as a pretext to topple the Sudanese government, Khartoum’s envoy to the African Union said yesterday. Ousman Alsaid also told reporters Western military intervention in its remote western region would risk splitting Africa’s largest country and unsettling its neighbors. “The US government is using the crisis in Darfur to bring down the government of Sudan,” he said on the sidelines of a meeting on Darfur of the 53-state AU’s peace and security council.
His remarks were the latest attempt by Sudan to compare outside criticism over Darfur with US-led pressure on Iraq before the war which ousted Saddam Hussein and was opposed by Arab states.
“The policy of the government of Sudan is not liked by the US administration so the Americans are targeting the government of Sudan because of it political stance,” he said, indicating Sudan’s anti-American policies on prominent Arab issues such as Iraq and the Israel-Palestinian dispute.
Sudan’s foreign minister said yesterday his government was disarming the Janjawid militia in the Darfur region, but that other Arab militias could not be expected to lay down their arms until local rebels had done the same. “The cantonment of the rebels and the disarmament of the militias and of the Janjawid should be done simultaneously,” Mustafa Osman Ismail told AFP in Ankara.
“We have already started arresting the Janjawid, but the militia will not disarm themselves unless they know that the rebels come out from within the civilians and that the tribes will be safe from the attack of the rebels,” he said. The Darfur conflict pits government forces and allied Arab militias against two rebel groups who have accused successive regimes in Khartoum of neglecting their region.
The international community has called for disarming the Arab militias blamed for slaughtering civilians in western Sudan and precipitating a famine in the area. “The rebels should be held responsible for any atrocities, destructions or violation which took place due to this conflict,” said the Sudanese foreign minister who was visiting Turkey after a tour of European countries.
The conflict has claimed up to 50,000 lives and about 1.2 million have been displaced, with around 200,000 people taking refuge in neighboring Chad. Clashes persist despite an April cease-fire. Egypt said yesterday that imposing sanctions on its southern neighbor would be damaging and should be avoided. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit also said Egypt shared concerns over the situation in Darfur.
“While we understand the aspects of concern and we share the aspects of concern and the interest in ... getting Darfur out of this situation, we underline the importance of avoiding the concept of sanctions and threatening sanctions, because this will damage the situation and complicate aspects of this matter,” Abul Gheit told reporters in Cairo.
A sea of tents in the remote Chadian area of Farchana houses tens of thousands of refugees from Darfur, whose already dire state is likely to be worsened by the onset of the rainy season. “I’ve been given nothing since I came here,” complained Adam Ahmat, who said he arrived in mid-June after fleeing rampages by the Arab militia in his home village of Ardeba, across the border in Darfur.
Ahmat explained that he lives with his three wives and 15 children in a shack made of branches with a sheet of plastic serving as a roof. He said they were living off food they brought with them when they fled. Their makeshift home is identical to many others in this camp that has taken in more than 30,000 people since it opened two months ago and sees dozens more arrive every day.
Men are few in number here. Most of the residents are women and children. The women, dressed in bright robes that stand out against the predominantly brown landscape, cook in little pots on fires outside their shacks or tents, while children fetch water from wells or play on the dusty ground that will soon turn into mud when the rains come.
Seasonal heavy rains have already begun in much of Chad and are hampering efforts to bring aid to the estimated 200,000 Sudanese refugees now living in remote eastern areas of the country.
