Darfur militias to be disarmed

2004-08-05 12:33

Khartoum - Khartoum is to start next week the disarming of state-sponsored Arab militias accused of a reign of terror in the western region of Darfur as demanded by the United Nations Security Council, the police chief of North Darfur State told a pro-government news agency on Thursday.

"The security and judicial commissions are going to start work disarming the uncontrolled militias in Darfur next week," Brigadier General Jamal al-Hueres told the Sudan Media Centre.

"The disarmament will be carried out both on a voluntary basis and through searches carried out by the police," he added.

Last Friday, the UN Security Council passed a resolution giving Khartoum 30 days to bring to heel the militias, especially the Janjaweed, or face possible sanctions.

Weapons to be bought back

The rebel movements in resource-rich Darfur, a vast region the size of France, have laid down the same condition for a resumption of peace talks in Addis Ababa that were broken off last month.

Information Minister Al-Zhawi Ibrahim Malik said on Tuesday that under an accord struck with UN chief Kofi Annan last month, the disarmament of militias would be "carried out simultaneously with the confinement to camp of the rebels under the supervision of an African force".

"As soon as this co-ordinated operation begins, we will resume contact with the (Arab) tribes to disarm them," he told AFP.

"We will be able to buy back from them (the militias) the weapons they bought to defend themselves," he said, warning that the government would deal with "extreme severity with those who refused to hand over their weapons".

According to government sources, the guerrillas who launched their revolt against the Khartoum government in February 2003 number 4 000, while Western estimates vary between 6 000 and 10 000.

The United Nations is to send a team to Addis Ababa to help the African Union (AU) set up a peacekeeping force in war-ravaged Darfur, where more than one million people face imminent starvation, Annan said Wednesday.

The AU, meanwhile, said it may send a 2 000-strong peacekeeping force to protect observers monitoring a shaky ceasefire and displaced civilians returning to their homes.

It suggested that the United States could provide logistical support for the force.

- AFP