AU asks Sudan to disarm militias
OSTENSIBLY to forestall further bloodshed in the crisis-torn Darfur region of Sudan, the African Union (AU) yesterday asked the Sudanese government to immediately disarm the Janjaweed militia.
The African leaders, however, said the bloodshed in the region was not a genocide as some human rights groups claim.
The AU's ruling was immediately proclaimed as a victory by the Sudanese government, which has long denied that the Arab militia's attacks on black African civilians are part of a government-backed extermination campaign.
"The decision showed quite clearly that there is no genocide. We are happy about it, although we admit that there is a desperate humanitarian need", Sudan's Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said at an AU summit in Ethiopia.
The AU's Peace and Security Council, a peacemaking body, demanded in a statement issued at the summit yesterday that all those responsible for killings and destruction of homes be brought to justice and asked the Sudanese government to consider ways and means to compensate "affected populations."
"Even though the crisis in Darfur is grave, with unacceptable levels of deaths, human suffering and destruction of homes and infrastructure, the situation cannot be described as a genocide," the statement added.
"The crisis should be addressed with urgency ... Council welcomes the commitment made by the government to disarm and neutralize the Janjaweed militia and urges the government to follow through with these commitments," it added.
More than 30 heads of state attending the summit were expected to make a further statement on Darfur today, when the summit officially closes.
Meanwhile, Sudan has agreed to about 300 AU troops being deployed to protect truce monitors in Darfur, where fighting has driven more than a million people from their homes.
The AU is preparing to send Nigerian and Rwandan troops to guard an eventual 60 AU peace monitors as well as to patrol refugee camps and border areas between Sudan and Chad, where some 200,000 Sudanese have fled from attacks by Arab militias.
Ismail said yesterday that Sudan would cooperate "positively" with the AU whenever it decided to go ahead with the deployment.
The crisis in oil-producing Sudan is seen by analysts and diplomats as a major test for the two-year-old AU, which is trying to win increased Western investment in return for ending wars and despotism and curbing corruption.
The AU has already sent observers to Darfur to ascertain the level of the crisis.
After years of tension in Darfur between nomadic Arab tribes and African farmers, two groups rebelled last year, accusing Khartoum of arming the Arab militias known as Janjaweed. The government denies the charge.
U.S. officials and human rights groups have said the Janjaweed are carrying out a campaign of ethnic cleansing in Darfur, which borders Chad. However, the Sudanese government insists that the Janjaweed are outlaws and has promised to try to disarm them.
The government has also agreed to attend AU-mediated talks on Darfur in Ethiopia this month and said it would co-operate fully.
The path to peace in Darfur looks uncertain as the two rebel groups have said they will not negotiate unless Sudan first disarms the marauding Arab militias and respects a shaky cease-fire agreement.
