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Africa: Horn
Ruud Urges Autonomy for Darfur
2004-09-24
My breath is fairly taken away.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees proposed autonomy for the troubled Darfur region of Sudan — a solution the government has resisted but said Friday it would be willing to discuss anew in an effort to end the violence that has killed 50,000 people. Also, the U.S. State Department's representative for Sudan said it would take up to two years to disarm the Arab militia blamed for the violence and secure the region so 1.4 million displaced people could return home.

UNHCR chief Ruud Lubbers went as far as any international official has done previously in proposing solutions to the 19-month conflict, which has been described by the United Nations as the world's worst humanitarian crisis. "There has to be some clear partition of power in Darfur," Lubbers said in Chad, whose eastern territory borders Darfur. But he added that autonomy would not mean "the total giving away of Darfur" by Sudan's central government.

Leaders in Khartoum previously have refused the degree of self-autonomy demanded by the two Darfur rebel groups. However, a senior Sudanese official said Friday the government was open to talks on Lubbers' proposal. "What do they mean by an autonomous region? This is something to be discussed," Sudan's state minister for humanitarian affairs, Mohammed Youssef Abdullah, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press in Cairo, Egypt.
Posted by:Fred

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