Sudan draws up plan to get Darfur displaced back home

Sunday July 4th, 2004.

KHARTOUM, July 4 (AFP) -- The Sudanese government has drawn up a plan to have more than a million people who fled their villages in strife-torn western Darfur to return voluntarily and provide them with security, a senior official said.

The returnees will be provided with services, shelter materials and food that will be adequate for three months, interior minister and presidential representative for Darfur Abdul Rahim Mohammed Hussein told a press conference.

People who fled small villages where there could be a greater risk from marauding militiamen will be housed in larger ones for now, he said.

He said that 30 percent of the region's deserted villages were completely destroyed and that the rest remained intact.

The interior minister said local leaders would be called upon to help with security arrangements along with police, and that residents would also participate in defending their villages.

He said the government has deployed 2,000 extra police in the region, another 2,000 are on their way and a similar number are being trained to follow.

The United States and United Nations have demanded the formation of an independent fact-finding commission on the Darfur crisis, a disarming of the Janjaweed militia and backing for an African Union ceasefire monitoring mechanism, Hussein said.

He also claimed that during visits last week to Darfur, US Secretary of State Colin Powell and UN chief Kofi Annan had changed their minds that there was "ethnic cleansing" in the area.

They "came with the notion that there is ethnic cleansing and genocide operations in Darfur, a situation they did not find during their visits," he said.

The minister also said the government would not be able to meet a demand by Powell that five tribal chiefs to be put on trial.

"Yes, he made this demand, but it is difficult to try chiefs, because they should not be responsible for the mistakes of their tribes," Hussein said, but declined to identify the tribal leaders or why Powell demanded their trial.

Washington has already drawn up draft sanctions targeting named pro- government Janjaweed leaders accused of orchestrating a "reign of terror" in Darfur, which has seen at least 10,000 people die since ethnic minority rebels launched an uprising early last year.