Gov’t ready to accept US assistance on Darfur crisis

Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Uthman Isma'il has said Sudan is ready to accept assistance from the United States government to solve the Darfur crisis. "We are ready to accept help," he told reporters in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, at a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Tuesday evening. Isma'il said he hoped that meetings with Powell on Wednesday would unify both parties’ understanding of the Darfur situation and "give us an agreed evaluation process". Powell, who flew to the conflict–ridden Darfur region of western Sudan on Wednesday morning, was due to hold meetings with high-level Sudanese officials and United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan the same day. Annan was expected to arrive in Khartoum on Wednesday morning and to fly to Darfur on Thursday, where the UN estimates over one million people have been displaced. On Friday he will visit neighbouring Chad, where a further 200,000 are camped along the shared border. Isma'il said during talks on Wednesday, that Khartoum would "look at" specific measures Powell had requested of the Sudanese government. "We will look at these, including the lifting of any restrictions concerning humanitarian aid, also more security arrangements to protect civilians and disarm militias," he said. "We are looking seriously before the end of the visit of Secretary Powell to reach an agreed plan [on] how we can help bring the situation in Darfur to normal." Powell told reporters that the purpose of his visit was "to be helpful", and that he had had "very candid" and "very direct" conversations with Isma'il and President Umar Hasan al-Bashir. He said he had "indicated to the minister and to the president the deep concern that is felt in the international community" about Darfur, adding that unless improvements were seen, "it may be necessary for the international community to begin considering other actions - [UN] Security Council action." The US government’s demands included the provision of additional security in Darfur to protect civilians and the delivery of aid, and the removal of all impediments to the delivery of aid. "We also hope the government will take firm action in respect to the process of political reconciliation. We want to see reconciliation between the government and the opposing forces so we don’t find ourselves in a similar situation a year or two or three from now," he continued. He said they would spend time on Wednesday "examining differences, different points of view" about the situation on the ground to try to get "a common understanding of what needs to be done". Statements issued by both governments in recent weeks show a radically different understanding of the Darfur crisis. Powell said two weeks ago that the US government was undertaking a review to determine whether the violence against Darfur’s civilians constituted genocide. He added that the US administration had "every reason to believe" that militias in Darfur were being supported by "various instrumentalities of the Sudanese government". Khartoum has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in Darfur, justifying attacks by saying it is fighting a rebellion in the region. Bashir has accused Western media of a campaign of lies, saying last week that accusations of "ethnic cleansing" by some Western media were "sheer fabrications and baseless", the Sudanese news agency (Suna) reported. Kofi Annan, among others, has issued warnings about the impending deaths of hundreds of thousands of people from hunger and disease in Darfur if aid is not allowed into the country urgently. But Khartoum has asserted that the situation affecting internally displaced persons (IDPs) is under control. Humanitarian Affairs Minister Ibrahim Mahmud Hamid was quoted by Suna last week as saying that things were "under control regarding accommodation of the displaced people in Darfur", adding that around 179,000 IDPs had been accommodated by the government. According to the US government, Khartoum has done almost nothing to rein in the Janjawid, held responsible for most of the displacement and killing, and is still holding up the delivery of aid in the region. "We've seen, on the one hand, President Bashir's declaration that the militias will be disarmed. We haven't seen any real follow-through on that. And then, on the other hand, we've also heard reports that he may be retracting that statement," said Adam Ereli of the US State Department on 25 June.