Global Policy Forum

By Nima Elbagir

The U.N. special envoy to Sudan on Thursday said he and Sudan's foreign minister had agreed a plan to tackle the humanitarian crisis in Darfur and avert sanctions threatened by the U.N. Security Council.

Jan Pronk, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special representative, told reporters: "The government of Sudan has to be commended for keeping its promise (on action in Darfur)." "We have full access and we have to make full use of this opportunity by coming in with more food, more planes, more trucks, more medication," he added.

Some 30,000 people are estimated to have died and 2.2 million are in urgent need of food, medicine and shelter in the western Darfur region where two main rebel groups launched a revolt last year, complaining of official neglect. The U.N. Security Council has demanded Khartoum disarm Janjaweed auxiliary militias used by the government to suppress the rebellion and asked Annan to report back in 30 days on how much progress the government has made.

The police commissioner in North Darfur state was quoted as saying the disarmament process would begin this week. "The disarmament campaign would be carried out on voluntary basis or through rushing into the suspected areas," Commissioner Jamal al-Huwairs told the semi-official Sudanese Media Center.

The Janjaweed have long competed with the settled population for land but are accused of going on the rampage in response to the revolt, setting fire to villages, killing, raping and driving people off their land.

SUBSTANTIAL PROGRESS NEEDED

The Council said that if Sudan is not complying it would consider imposing sanctions, which it did not specify. Pronk said he and Sudanese Foreign Minister Osman Mustafa Ismail agreed on detailed policy measures that should be implemented to save Sudan from Security Council action. "If that text is agreed upon by the (Sudanese) cabinet as a whole and if that text is implemented, then I have very good hope that the Security Council...can only come to the conclusion that there is indeed substantial progress," he said, "If there is indeed substantial progress, then there is no need to consider further action," he added. Ismail had earlier told journalists the plan would outline how the government would deal with the Darfur issue in the coming 30 days.

Asked on Wednesday what evidence there was that Khartoum was complying with the U.S. resolution, Pronk said: "They have deployed many more policemen in the region and they have stopped their own military activities against villages. "They have lifted all restrictions on humanitarian assistance."

Secretary of State Colin Powell wrote in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday that Sudan had not done enough. "Violence and atrocities on a wide scale continue to be committed against the civilian population in Darfur," he wrote. "To date the Government of Sudan has removed many obstacles to humanitarian access, cooperated with the African Union cease-fire monitors and agreed to participate in political talks. The Sudanese government has not, however, taken decisive steps to end the violence."

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