“I personally believe that we need a sort of federal system, which we have already started,” Ismail said

KHARTOUM, September 28 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The Sudanese government has made conflicting statements on the idea of granting the war-torn western Sudanese region of Darfur.

On Monday, Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail supported the idea of transforming war-torn Sudan's government into a federal system with considerable autonomy granted to its states, including Darfur.

Tuesday, September 28, another Sudanese minister backtracked on the idea as the Khartoum government finalized an action plan for the devastated western region, according to official newspapers.

Ismail, in an interview with Reuters Monday, September 27, said a federal system along the lines of Germany, Nigeria, the United States or Canada would help the northeast African nation better cope with its vast size and ethnic and religious diversity.

“I personally believe that we need a sort of federal system, which we have already started,” Ismail told Reuters.

“We need to give it a strengthening. The people from Darfur state should have the right to have a parliament, to have a governor, to have a government to be elected by the people of Darfur,” he said.

The question of autonomy should be addressed when talks begin between the various warring parties on the country's political future, after the fighting has ended and Sudan's humanitarian woes have been addressed, he said.

The UN refugee chief Ruud Lubbers, who was to hold talks with Sudanese President Omar Al-Beshir later Tuesday, has repeatedly called for self-rule for Darfur during a tour that has already taken him to refugee camps in neighboring Chad and displaced person camps in the region itself.

Not Considered

Lubbers has repeatedly called for self-rule for Darfur

But Sudan's junior Foreign Minister Naguib Al-Khair Abdel Wahab was quoted as saying that self-rule for the non-Arab minorities of Darfur was an issue that would not be considered until a later stage in troubled peace talks with rebel negotiators in Nigeria, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

He rejected calls from Lubbers, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees who arrived in Khartoum Monday, for an immediate pledge of a genuinely federal constitution for all regions of Sudan to address the grievances of the Darfur minorities, the Al-Sahafa daily reported.

The government would insist on "political arrangements which will be based on principles endorsed by the government in the constitution and Naivasha protocols," he said.

The latter was a reference to preliminary agreements with southern rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Army granting self-rule to the south and disputed adjacent districts.

Sudan's existing constitution grants very limited autonomy to an array of states, but critics say the units are deliberately drawn up to divide the traditional regions of this vast country -- the biggest in Africa.

Abdel Wahab's comments marked a significant toughening of position from a pledge made by Information Minister Al-Zhawi Ibrahim Malik in an AFP interview on August 3.

“We are ready to share power and resources in Darfur, we are ready for genuine federalism,” Malik said then.

The junior Foreign Minister said he was nonetheless optimistic that the key political round of peace talks with the Darfur rebels planned to open October 21 would “not be as tense and difficult as the previous round.”

The Sudanese minister said the cabinet had now finalized its action plan to meet a UN Security Council ultimatum to stem the suffering caused by its bloody 19-month clampdown in Darfur, where up to 50,000 people have died and 1.4 million been driven from their homes, according to UN figures.

Khartoum says it put an action plan to tackle the humanitarian situation in Darfur

The government “has finished preparing a complete plan for dealing with the recent Security Council resolution,” Abdel Wahab told Al-Sahafa.

He offered no details of the blueprint, saying only that Khartoum would “implement the plan in cooperation with the African Union in its capacity as the primary sponsor of the Darfur question.”

The UN Security Council on September 18 passed a US-drafted resolution threatening to “envisage” sanctions against Sudan's oil industry unless the Khartoum government meets its commitment to restore security to its troubled Darfur province.