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Sudan Says Darfur Disarmament
Sudan has started disarming Arab militias accused of sowing death and terror in its western region of Darfur and is confident the process will proceed smoothly, Foreign Minster Mustafa Osman Ismail said on Sunday. "It is under way," Ismail said, following his governmentâs pledge on Saturday to disarm the Arab "Janjaweed" fighters responsible for uprooting more than one million people and creating what the United Nations has called the worldâs worst humanitarian crisis. But rebels said the operation was a cover for preparations for a new wave of ethnic cleansing. They said a large government force was being mobilized in the regional capital. Sudanâs promise has been greeted with skepticism by some human rights groups, which have joined U.S. officials in accusing the militia of carrying out ethnic cleansing campaign against black Africans. Underlining that skepticism, the rebel Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM) said it feared Khartoum planned a new offensive from Nyala, the capital of Southern Darfur state. "The movement knows that under the cover of what is being termed âthe disarmament of the Janjaweedâ, the government is preparing a new ethnic cleansing push after the mobilization of a large force from Nyala," the SLM said in a statement. How do you say "Hudna" in Sudanese? Posted by: Seafarious 2004-07-04 |
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