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KHARTOUM, Aug 1: The Sudanese cabinet condemned on Sunday the 30-day deadline for action on Darfur set by the UN Security Council, but said it would implement a 90-day programme agreed earlier with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
The Security Council, in a resolution passed on Friday, demanded that the Sudanese government take action within 30 days to disarm the Arab militias known as the Janjaweed, accused of creating a humanitarian crisis in the western region.
If Sudan fails to satisfy the council, the United Nations said it intends to consider economic and diplomatic sanctions. Sudan has given a mixed response to the resolution and the cabinet met on Sunday to take a formal position.
"The council of ministers condemned the time period and views it to be illogical and difficult to implement, especially since the agreement we reached with the United Nations gave a 90-day implementation period," Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail told reporters after the meeting.
"Sudan will commit to implement the agreement that it signed on July 3 with Kofi Annan and will commit to the joint implementation mechanism which was set up to monitor this agreement," the minister added.
The agreement with Kofi Annan included a Sudanese government commitment to disarm the Janjaweed militias and accept human rights monitors in Darfur, where conflict has displaced more than one million people, but it allowed Sudan more time.
Sudan says it has already started to crack down on the militias, who have been attacking African villages, looting, raping, burning houses and driving the people off the land.
The villagers have taken refuge in camps in Darfur or have fled across the border into neighbouring Chad. As time passes without adequate relief, the risk of death through disease and starvation is increasing, aid officials said.
ON THE DEFENSIVE: Ismail said the "joint implementation mechanism", which brings together US and Sudanese officials, would meet on Monday to continue its work.
The crisis in Darfur has put the Sudanese government on the defensive against mainly Western outrage and threats of military intervention if Khartoum does not do what it is told to do.
A British newspaper said on Sunday that British soldiers have been put on standby for a possible deployment to Sudan to help tackle the Darfur emergency. A spokeswoman for the ministry of defence described the article in the Independent on Sunday as "just speculation", but repeated comments made by Britain's top military commander last week that the country could send troops to Sudan if they were requested.
She said no such request had been made. The newspaper said soldiers of the 12th Mechanised Infantry Brigade were being briefed about a possible trip to Sudan. General Mike Jackson, chief of staff, said last week a brigade could be put together "very quickly indeed".
The threat of sanctions against Sudan has added to tensions between the United States and its allies on one side and Arab governments on the other. The Arab governments do not feel the same sense of urgency and suspect ulterior motives.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, who visited Darfur on Saturday, told reporters in Cairo on Sunday that talk of genocide or ethnic cleansing in Darfur was out of place.
The US Congress passed a resolution last month declaring the attacks on African villagers to be genocide. Aboul Gheith said: "To talk about ... grave violations of human rights or massacres or other such accusations, I don't think it is that way."
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said it was unacceptable that Sudan become a "playground to accept troops from tens of thousands of miles away from a country which is hostile to the Arabs", a league statement said. -Reuters
