World push to settle Darfur crisis
Straw flies to Sudan but Khartoum rejects Nigeria peace plan
KHARTOUM, Sudan -- Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has said his government is prepared to help fund an enlarged African Union force to monitor the situation in the troubled western Sudan region of Darfur.
Straw flew to the East African country on Monday as part of a stepped-up world diplomatic offensive to end the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.
Straw traveled to Khartoum as Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo hosted talks in the Nigerian capital, Abjua, between the Sudan government and rebels.
But at those talks Sudan rejected an offer of African troops to disarm the rebels, insisting it was capable of neutralizing pro-government and rebel militia fighting in the western region.
The African Union already has about 80 observers on the ground, protected by 150 Rwandan troops, to monitor the rarely-adhered-to April 8 cease-fire.
British officials said an AU plan envisaged up to 1,000 observers and 3,000 troops to monitor a region the size of France with 147 known refugee camps.
"The government of Sudan may need more assistance from the AU, and it's our job to facilitate it," The Associated Press reported Straw as saying.
The minister plans to meet with Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir during his two-day visit to Sudan.
Briefing reporters during the flight from London, Straw said he had spoken over the weekend with Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and told them "we were ready to provide further military facilitation and anything else they wanted."
During his visit he will also visit a refugee camp in Darfur where conflict between rebel groups has forced millions of people to flee their homes.
"I am keen to see for myself the situation on the ground in Darfur, and to make clear to the Sudanese Government and people the extent of British, and broader international, concern," Straw said shortly before he left Britain.
Eighteen months of conflict in Darfur has killed tens of thousands and driven 1.2 million others from their homes in what the U.N. has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
 A Sudanese family waits for food in Darfur's Kandong refugee camp. |  |
British officials say Straw will urge el-Bashir to rein in Arab militias who are destroying villages and killing and raping black African farmers and their families across the region.
He will also encourage Khartoum to reach a political settlement with the two African rebel groups at the peace talks in Abuja.
U.N. officials accuse the Sudan government of trying to crush the revolt by backing a scorched earth policy carried out by the Arab militias -- known as the Janjaweed.
Khartoum has long denied such accusations, although according to the U.N., it acknowledged last week that it has "control" over some Janjaweed fighters and has promised in the coming week to give the world body a list of militants suspected of involvement in the bloodshed.
August 30 deadline
The U.N. Security Council has given the Sudanese government until August 30 to disarm the militias, or face economic and diplomatic penalties.
A senior Foreign Office official told The Associated Press it was unclear what degree of control the government had over the militias, but said Security Council members wanted "measurable, genuine compliance" from Khartoum by the August 30 deadline.
"It is hard to judge the extent to which the government of Sudan is able to turn off the tap in relation to the Janjaweed," he said.
"Are the government of Sudan doing enough? No. It is quite clear they are not doing enough to deliver on their commitments."
Meanwhile in Abuja, Sudan rejected an offer of African troops to disarm rebels in Darfur, insisting it was capable of neutralizing pro-government and rebel militia fighting in the western region.
Rebels, in turn, said they would not accept disarmament by Sudanese government forces to end an 18-month-old conflict.
Nigeria's President Obasanjo made the proposal ahead of the talks in Abuja, arguing that Sudanese forces were incapable of disarming the rebels without more fighting in Darfur where the conflict has already killed up to 50,000 people.
Sudan rejects deal
But Sudan's top government negotiator Mazjoub al-Khalifa dismissed African Union chairman Obasanjo's deal in which AU troops would disarm rebels while leaving the disarmament of the pro-government Janjaweed militia to Khartoum.
"I don't think there is a need for this," said Khalifa, Sudan's agriculture minister, before talks with negotiators from two Darfur rebel groups. "Simultaneously we will disarm the rebel movements, the Janjaweed and other militia."
That idea was swiftly rejected by an official from one of the rebel groups. "There is no way we can let our enemies disarm us. They are still killing us and bombing us," said Abubakar Hamid Nour, coordinator of the Justice and Equality Movement.
In a goodwill gesture on the eve of peace talks in Nigeria, Sudan's government said Sunday it would cut the number of official paramilitary forces operating in Darfur by 30 percent.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
