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August 3, 2004 Scotsman DARFUR AID EFFORTS STALL AMID PROTEST OVER UN'S 30-DAY SANCTIONS THREAT Gethin Chamberlain In El Fashir, Darfur ATTEMPTS to bring aid to tens of thousands of refugees in Darfur ground to a halt yesterday as Sudanese officials stopped work in protest at the United Nations' threat of sanctions against the Khartoum government. A massive operation to deliver food, shelter and medical supplies to those displaced by the fighting in Western Sudan began on Sunday when the United Nations World Food Programme air-dropped tons of provisions into the region. But by yesterday the aid efforts had stalled after the Khartoum government ordered its officials to stop work in protest at the UN's 30-day deadline for the government to take action against the Arab Janjaweed militias, leaving aid workers unable to move safely within Darfur. In another worrying development, reports emerged yesterday that the FLA, one of the two rebel groups fighting the Janjaweed in Darfur, had seized two aid lorries. As aid workers faced difficulties in the region, the World Food Programme said it had air-dropped 22 tons of food to the farming town of Fur Buranga, in western Darfur, using an Antonov-12 plane. The agency plans to deliver about 1,400 tons of food including cereals, pulses, corn-soya blend and salt in a first round of air-drops to help more than 70,000 people displaced by the 17-month conflict. The agency has said it expects that the air-supply effort in Darfur will exceed the Berlin airlift of the late 1940s. Meanwhile, Sudan's army yesterday said it was prepared for "whatever developments take place" in Darfur, but insisted the government was working to meet the conditions of the UN Security Council resolution threatening sanctions. Sudan's military has said the UN has not given the country enough time to disarm the Janjaweed militias, who are accused of genocide by the United States Congress, a Sudanese foreign ministry official said. "It is an operation that must be carried out in degrees. Therefore the military high command believes it is better to be in a state of preparedness to confront whatever developments take place," said the minister of state for foreign relations, Najeeb al-Kheir Abdul Wahab. The semi-official Sudanese Media Centre yesterday quoted the army spokesman Mohammed Bashir Suleiman as saying the UN resolution, drafted by Washington and passed on Friday, was an "American declaration of war". The resolution called on Sudan to disarm the Janjaweed and prosecute militia leaders. It said the Security Council could consider economic and diplomatic sanctions on the oil-producing country in one month. Abdul Wahab said Sudan would appeal against the UN resolution on the grounds that it would hamper peace talks between the government and the rebels. He said the resolution's threat of sanctions sent "a misleading message to the other party and will obstruct the ongoing efforts ... to return both sides to the negotiating table". But Adam Ereli, a US State Department spokesman, reiterated Washington's call for immediate action. "There is no excuse for not taking action now. The Security Council calls for action now. And that's what we want to see. And we will evaluate the situation again in 30 days."
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................................................................................................................. Copyright ©2004 Gethin Chamberlain. All rights reserved. |
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