Arab nations and Sudan are very distraught at world intervention to stop a genocide in Darfur.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=5848864
Sudan Army Says Ready as Govt. Works on Resolution
Mon Aug 2, 2004 02:53 PM ET
By Nima Elbagir
KHARTOUM, Sudan (Reuters) - Sudan's army is prepared for "whatever developments take place" but the government is working to meet the conditions of a U.N. Security Council resolution threatening sanctions, a Sudanese official said Monday.
Sudan's military thinks the United Nations has not given Sudan enough time to disarm the Janjaweed militias, who are accused of genocide by the U.S. Congress, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry official told Reuters.
"It is an operation that must be carried out in degrees, therefore the military high command believes it is better to be in a state of preparedness to confront whatever developments take place," said the minister of state for foreign relations, Najeeb al-Kheir Abdul Wahab.
The semi-official Sudanese Media Center Monday quoted army spokesman Mohammed Bashir Suleiman as saying the U.N. resolution, drafted by Washington and passed Friday, was an "American declaration of war."
The resolution called on Sudan to disarm the Janjaweed and prosecute militia leaders. It said the Security Council could consider economic and diplomatic sanctions on the oil-producing country in one month.
Abdul Wahab said Sudan would appeal against the U.N. Security Council resolution on the grounds it would hamper peace talks between the government and the rebels.
He said the resolution's threat of sanctions sent "a misleading message to the other party and will obstruct the ongoing efforts ... to return both sides to the negotiating table."
But State Department spokesman Adam Ereli reiterated Washington's call for immediate action.
"There is no excuse for not taking action now. The Security Council calls for action now. And that's what we want to see. And we will evaluate the situation again in 30 days."
CLOSE COOPERATION
The Sudanese government has used the Arab militias as auxiliaries against two main rebel groups who started a revolt in Sudan's western Darfur region in early 2003.
The Janjaweed have long competed with the settled population for land but are accused of going on the rampage in response to the revolt, setting fire to villages, killing, raping and driving more than a million people off their land.
Aid agencies say 30,000 people have been killed so far in Darfur and more than 1 million have been displaced in the violence since the revolt began. The United Nations has described the situation in Darfur as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
A survey of Darfur refugees at camps in Chad by the U.S.-based Coalition for International Justice indicates that militias and official Sudanese forces cooperated closely in violence in Darfur.
Stefanie Frease, head of the Darfur Documentation Project, told Reuters in the Chadian town of Abeche, said trends were emerging in the group's interviews with hundreds of refugees.
"One of them has been the close coordination between government of Sudan forces and the Janjaweed (militias) in the attacks -- (an) extraordinarily high percentage," Frease said.
Sudan's government has denied it controls the Janjaweed and has branded them outlaws.
CEASE-FIRE EXTENDED
The Arab League, which has already complained about suggestions Western troops would be sent to Sudan, said Arab foreign ministers would hold an emergency meeting in Cairo on Sunday at Sudan's request to discuss the situation in Darfur.
Egypt's official Middle East News Agency reported the Arab world's most populous country dispatched five military planes loaded with humanitarian aid to Darfur.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit echoed the Sudanese position Monday when he told reporters that 30 days "might not be enough."
Abdul Wahab said although Sudan was not happy about the resolution, the government was working to implement its demands.
He added there was no set date for talks between rebels and the government but consultations were under way. The last attempt at talks broke down when the rebels set preconditions.
Adam Ali Shogar, a senior official in the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement, said a cease-fire between Khartoum and rebels in western Sudan, who both accuse each other of violating the deal, was extended Monday.
The truce, signed on April 8, was automatically renewed because neither the rebels or the government had raised objections, he said.
AID AIRDROP
The U.N. World Food Program said it had begun aid airdrops in the town of Fur Buranga in an area in Western Darfur state about 1,150 km (720 miles) southwest of Khartoum.
It said the airdrops had started Sunday and would continue in six more locations, delivering a total of 1,400 tons of food to assist a combined population of 72,000 local and displaced people.
The organization added it had only received about half the funds it needed for its Darfur emergency work this year.
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