Straw: 'More to be done' in Sudan
'Bandit country' preventing return to homes, aide says
KHARTOUM, Sudan -- "More needs to be done" to end the humanitarian crisis in Sudan, Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said after visiting a refugee camp Tuesday.
Speaking at the Abu Shouk refugee camp in northern Darfur, Straw said the camps appeared to be safer but he voiced concern about surrounding areas and villages, which one of his officials described as "bandit country."
"I recognize that the government of Sudan have made progress, especially in humanitarian access and camp safety and security within the camps, but people are obviously still very anxious and nervous about whether they will be safe when they go back to their villages," he told reporters.
He said he would report back to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the extent of progress made.
Straw was speaking as deadlocked peace talks between the Sudanese government and rebel groups resumed Tuesday in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.
On Monday, Sudan turned down a wider role for African peacekeepers despite international pressure to end violence by Arab militias against non-Arab villagers.
Straw was in Sudan to press the government on ending the violence that has left at least 30,000 dead and one million homeless -- with the extra pressure of a U.N. deadline looming.
The U.N. Security Council has given the Sudanese government until August 30 to disarm the militias, or face economic and diplomatic penalties.
Straw said he had talked to refugees at the camp -- currently home to 55,000 people -- about why they fled their homes and what it would take to enable them to return.
The British minister flew to Abu Shouk from the Sudanese capital Khartoum after talks aimed at urging the government to comply with U.N. demands to end the conflict.
Straw, who met with Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail late Monday, said he had secured a pledge from Ismail to grant visas to British representatives of the human rights groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, so far barred from the region.
Straw said Khartoum had pledged to use accords signed in May with rebel groups in the south of the country as a template for peace talks in Nigeria.
The Naivasha accords, named after the Kenyan town where they were sealed, aimed to end a 21-year war in the south. Straw said Sudan had agreed to put forward a similar idea at Abuja.
In the Nigerian capital Monday, 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.
 Straw is greeted by dignitaries at the Abu Shouk camp. |  |
A British official traveling with Straw in Darfur described the area around the Abu Shouk camp as "bandit country" and said the militias, known as Janjaweed, were "doing what they want, where they want, when they want to the non-Arabs."
Once black African farmers have been forced off their land, militiamen continue to terrorize them to ensure they stayed in camps, the official said.
"Stealing, beating and sexual molestation of women" is common, he said. However, he said he'd seen no evidence the government had backed up the militias with aerial bomb attacks since an April 8 cease-fire.
The official said Britain welcomed Sudanese government plans to deploy extra police around the camps but warned there was continuing abuse of refugees and it remained to be seen whether the new police policies would be sufficient.
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.
The African Union has proposed to send nearly 2,000 peacekeepers to Darfur. The AU now has a small contingent of 150 Rwandan soldiers in Sudan to protect 80 union monitors observing the largely ignored cease-fire. Another 150 soldiers from Nigeria are expected in coming weeks.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
