Gov’t commits to immediate disarmament of Janjawid in Darfur

In a joint communiqué with the United Nations, the Sudanese government on Saturday formally committed to the immediate disarmament of Janjawid militias and other outlaws operating in the western Darfur region. The communiqué was issued at the end of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s three-day visit to Sudan and Chad, where he met and talked to internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees who had fled from the ongoing conflict. At a press conference in Khartoum on Friday evening, Annan said: "My message, on behalf of the UN, to the government and other parties to the conflict is therefore clear: The violence must stop, the Janjawid militia must be disarmed and demobilised and the ceasefire agreement must be respected by all parties." "The government has made a commitment publicly and I’ve also indicated that we are setting up a high level monitoring system, which also shows the seriousness with which those commitments were made. I think we have to take it in good faith and have positive expectations," he added. The Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il said: "We made these commitments voluntarily. We are not thinking that we made them by pressure, but we made it quite clear that we made them voluntarily, because we feel we should do it." "We will implement whatever we have decided to do," he added. Annan told reporters he had, on behalf of the UN, agreed to increase international relief efforts in Darfur and to appeal to donors for more funding. "We have less than half of the funding we need to avoid starvation and epidemics in Darfur and in Chad. Many donors give too little too late," he said. The following are the main points of the communiqué: The Government committed to: - Immediately disarm the Janjawid militias and other "armed outlaw groups". - Ensure that no militias are present in areas surrounding camps for displaced. - Deploy a "strong, credible and respected" police force in all IDP areas and others "susceptible to attacks". - Ensure that all movement of IDPs to their homes is done in a "truly voluntary manner". - Implement a "moratorium on restrictions" for all humanitarian work and remove "any other obstacles to humanitarian work" including a suspension of visa restrictions for all humanitarian workers, free movement of aid workers, immediate temporary NGO registration and suspension of all restrictions on the importation of equipment and vehicles. - Undertake "concrete measures" to end impunity and investigate all cases of ceasefire violations and all the deployment of human rights monitors. - Establish "a fair system" to allow abused women to bring charges against alleged perpetrators. - Resume political talks on Darfur in "the shortest time possible". The UN committed to: - Help alleviate the humanitarian needs of the affected populations through its 90-day Humanitarian Action Plan. - To assist in the quick deployment of African Union ceasefire monitors. - To continue to help to mediate talks on southern Sudan and Darfur and to assist in the implementation of agreements reached on both areas. Both parties committed to: - Form a Joint Implementation Mechanism for the agreement which will meet regularly to discuss progress made. The Darfur crisis has uprooted over a million people, according to UN estimates. Most have been displaced within Darfur, while at least 150,000 have fled to Chad. Last week, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Asma Jahangir, said "there was no doubt that Khartoum had sponsored, armed or recruited" the Janjawid militias which have been blamed for committing most of the atrocities in Darfur. Other human rights organisations have accused the government-allied militias of having "committed numerous human rights violations in Darfur, including murders, rapes, and the looting and destruction of villages". Jahangir told reporters that "nearly every third or fourth family" she had spoken to while visiting IDP camps in Darfur had lost a relative to the militias. "It is very hard to say [accurately] how many people have been killed," she said, but interviews with IDPs indicated that it would be "quite a large number... They are bound to be staggering," she added.