Active Duty Military Army Navy Air Force Marines Coast Guard Reserves Veterans

Sudan

CIA Fact Book

Powell Gives Ultimatum over Darfur Militias

Wed Jun 30, 2004 04:24 PM ET

By Saul Hudson and Opheera McDoom

KHARTOUM, Sudan (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell issued an ultimatum to Sudan Wednesday, threatening U.N. action unless it allows full aid access to more than 1 million refugees and disarms militias killing in the Darfur region.

Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said his government would combat the Arab militias in the remote region and improve aid access to refugees caught up in what the United Nations has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

"I am pleased with the response that we have received from the Sudanese government," Powell said after talks with Sudan's First Vice President Mohammed Taha and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who arrived in the capital Khartoum Wednesday.

"There already has been consideration given to U.N. resolutions...unless these...kind of commitments (from the Sudanese government) are actually executed," Powell, who also visited Darfur, told reporters.

"We are talking about within days or weeks," he said.

U.S. officials and human rights groups accuse Khartoum of arming and supporting the Janjaweed Arab militias to raid black African villages in Darfur in a campaign of ethnic cleansing. Khartoum denies the charges, saying the Janjaweed are outlaws.

Some 10,000 to 30,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the Darfur crisis.

ARMS EMBARGO

The United States called for the United Nations to impose an arms embargo and travel ban on Darfur's militias, but a new U.S.-drafted Security Council resolution obtained by Reuters would not impose sanctions against the Khartoum government.

Ismail said Sudan would cooperate with the United States and the United Nations.

"We will combat any militias and Janjaweed so that we secure the protection of civilians," said Ismail, adding he would seek to speed up talks with two groups from African tribes who launched a rebellion in Darfur last year.

We are going to work on lifting any restrictions on humanitarian aid," he said.

The rebels signed a cease-fire with Khartoum on April 8 but both sides have since accused each other of violations.

Powell received cheers when he visited what aid workers called a show camp for those displaced by the Darfur fighting.

"We all want them to return to their homes and that will require the re-establishment 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.

POWELL CHEERED

Thousands of displaced Darfuris clapped and waved walking sticks to welcome Powell on his 20-minute visit to the camp, a few miles outside El Fasher, capital of Northern Darfur state.

Powell arrived in Sudan Tuesday to press the government to crack down on the Janjaweed and to allow relief groups unrestricted access to the region, which is badly in need of food and medicine.

A senior State Department official, who declined to be identified, said the Sudanese government did not see the gravity of the humanitarian crisis.

"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.

Tuesday, Powell met Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir who promised to disarm the Janjaweed and give relief organizations access to the Darfur region.

But the U.S. official said: "(Bashir) has said these things before. We'll have to see what they actually do."

The chairman of the Commission of the African Union, Alpha Oumar Konare, urged the Sudanese government to disarm the militias.

Konare told the opening session of a four-day conference of African foreign ministers he hoped a meeting of Sudanese political groups due to be held in the Chadian capital N'Djamena beginning July 2 would help to resolve the crisis.

The conflict in Darfur has spread into neighboring Chad and Chadian President Idriss Deby said Tuesday more than 300 civilians had been killed in cross-border raids. (Additional reporting by Nima Elbagir in Khartoum and Betel Miarom in N'Djamena)