Sudan FM warns US not to create Iraq-style crisis over Darfur

Friday July 9th, 2004.

KHARTOUM, July 9 (AFP) -- Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail warned Washington not to spark an Iraq-style crisis over the civil war in Darfur, insisting in comments published Friday that US sanctions threats only aggravated the situation.

Ismail warned "those voices which have drawn the world to the Iraq war not to take it to a new war which it will be difficult to disengage from."

In the interview with the independent Al-Rai Al-Aam daily, the minister said US calls for the UN Security Council to consider sanctions only weakened his government's efforts to resolve the crisis and complicated its relationship with the world body.

They also risked "weakening the credibility of agreements recently concluded with the UN Secretary General (Kofi Annan) and US Secretary of State (Colin Powell)" in which Khartoum undertook to disarm the state- sponsored Arab militias held responsible for much of the suffering in Darfur.

"There is a conspiracy targeting the Sudan, its identity and structure and we have to be cautious and ready for every possibility," said Ismail, adding that Khartoum opposed the imposition of sanctions against any Sudanese.

Washington has already drawn up a draft Security Council resolution that would impose sanctions against named militia leaders and has threatened to widen the scope of the text to cover government officials if Khartoum does not move quickly to rein in abuses.

"We need immediate improvement in the situation, and if we don't see that, then the United States and the international community will have to consider further measures," Powell warned Thursday.

The Sudanese foreign minister was speaking on his return from an African Union summit in Addis Ababa, at which the regional body approved the deployment of 300 armed troops in Darfur by the end of the month to protect its observers and civilians in the region.

The Al-Sahafa daily meanwhile reported that Sudanese President Omar al- Beshir would leave for Gineina in West Darfur State, for talks with his Chadian counterpart Idriss Deby on the deployment of a joint military force to patrol the common border.

More than 10,000 people have died and well over a million been driven from their homes since ethnic minority rebels took up arms in Darfur early last year, in what the United Nations has described as the world's worst current humanitarian crisis.

More than 100,000 of the displaced have sought refuge in neighbouring Chad sparking fears that the conflict might spill over Sudan's borders. Sporadic clashes have been reported between Darfur militiamen and Chadian troops.