KHARTOUM,
August 7 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Sudan Saturday,
August 7, has ratified a 30-day action plan to ease humanitarian
crisis in Darfur and start disarming militias in the restive western
province, as more than 200 members of a rebel group in Darfur are said
to have defected and jointed government forces.
“The
agreement reached Wednesday night (August 4) has now been finalized by
the Sudanese government,” said Fred Eckhard, spokesman for UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan.
The
plan was negotiated by Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail and
Jan Pronk, Annan's special envoy for Sudan, reported Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
“A
formal copy of the agreement will be signed by Mr Pronk and the
Foreign Minister and officially issued on Monday (August 9),"
said Eckhard.
Under
the plan, the Sudanese government must “instruct” armed militias
“over which it has influence” to halt their activities and lay
down their weapons.
Khartoum
is also expected to create safe areas, which would then be linked by
secure roads with trusting the task of maintaining security to the
police forces.
The
creation of safe areas will provide a safe haven for those who fled
their homes and allow them to search for water and food, take care of
animals and work on their land, according to the plan.
The
agreement also calls for a halt to all offensive military operations
in the proposed safe areas, including government action against rebel
groups.
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Seas of Sudanese people protest US interference in internal affairs
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The
UNSC threatened
Sudan Friday, July 31, with punitive measures if it failed to rein in
the Arab militias within one month.
The
United Nations has labeled the 16-month-old conflict as the world's
worst current humanitarian crisis, amid mixed reports putting the
number of people killed at 10,000 to 50,000 and over one million
reportedly forced to flee their homes.
Western
media and countries alleged that systematic ethnic cleansing and mass
rapes were taking place in the 125,000-square miles Darfur - almost
the size of the United Kingdom.
But
Dr. Hussein Gezairy, Regional Director of World Health
Organization’s Eastern Mediterranean Region, told IslamOnline.net
Thursday, July 29, that the situation in the restive area did
not amount to genocide or ethnic cleansing as
claimed.
Rebels
Defect
In
another positive sign for the embattled Khartoum government, more than
200 members of a rebel group fighting Sudanese government forces in
Darfur are said to have defected.
According
to the state-run Omdurman radio and several governmental newspapers,
10 field commanders and 200 men of the rebel Justice and Equality
Movement (JEM) announced in the border town of Tina they were
defecting and joining government forces.
Reports
quoted the commanders as declaring at a ceremony held there for the
occasion that their defection was prompted by the “unacceptable”
treatment inflicted on them by rebel leaders, reported AFP.
“The
rebellion was not launched for the development and rehabilitation of
Darfur but for destroying the region and displacing its people,”
they said at the ceremony led by North Darfur Governor Osman Yusuf
Kibir.
Kibir
welcomed the defectors and pledged to absorb them into the government
army and police, the reports said.
The
defectors' leaders pledged to bring back 146,000 refugees from
neighboring Chad to the Tina region to support local farming.
The
leader of the Arab militias accused by Washington of being responsible
for atrocities in Sudan’s Darfur said Tuesday, August 3, he was
willing to
lay down arms should all other warring parties do
the same in compliance with the latest UN Security Council Resolution.
Warmongering
Rhetoric
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Frist tours a camp for Sudanese refugees
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US
officials, however, kept on stepping on warmongering rhetoric on
Darfur.
Senate
Majority Leader Bill Frist Friday called the crisis “one of the
greatest humanitarian challenges of our time” and said the killing
there was “genocide”, the Washington Post said.
Visiting
refugees who had fled into Chad from Darfur, Frist said the violence
was “specific to a group of people, with race playing a major role
in intent. It is genocide”.
The
House and Senate passed resolutions last month also declaring the
situation a genocide and urged President Bush to seek a UN protection
force.
The
Tennessee Republican also described as enough a 30-day deadline set by
the UN Security Council for the Sudanese government to rein in the
Janjaweed and end the crisis.
“The
direct line between the government of Sudan and the Janjaweed and the
raping, pillaging and murder is so direct that, with an order from the
top, I am absolutely convinced it could stop within a week,” Frist
said.
“If
the President of Sudan says stop, he can stop it.”
Influential
leaders of the US evangelical organizations signed a letter asking
President George W. Bush Wednesday to consider a
military action against Sudan.
On
Monday, August 2, the Guardian reported that British Prime
Minister Tony Blair is making the case for a "colonial
war " against Sudan because of its growing oil reserves,
as there are no signs of highly-touted claims of genocide in the Arab
country.
