Press Release/Commentary by ESPAC posted on May 25, 2004 at 10:26:03: EST (-5 GMT)

DARFUR'S HUMANITARIAN CRISIS 3: INTERVIEW WITH SUDAN'S AID COMMISSIONER

The European-Sudanese Public Affairs Council
http://www.espac.org
Date of Publication: 25 May 2004

Introduction

Since February 2003 there has been a military conflict between two armed
groups and the Government of Sudan in Darfur, a region in western Sudan.
These groups, the 'Sudan Liberation Army' and the 'Justice and Equality
Movement', launched their first attacks on government garrisons in the
region. Since these attacks the conflict escalated, seemingly out of
control, and has resulted in many deaths and the displacement of
hundreds of thousands of civilians within Sudan. Many others have fled
into neighbouring Chad. A stark humanitarian crisis has ensued. In a
keynote interview with the United Nations information service in early
April 2004, Dr Sulaf al-Din Salih, the commissioner-general of Sudan's
Humanitarian Aid Commission, addressed many of the issues raised in the
international media.. This interview is reproduced below:

(On 19 April 2004, the government and rebels signed a humanitarian
ceasefire agreement as a first step towards a lasting peace).

INTERVIEW WITH GOVERNMENT HUMANITARIAN AID COMMISSIONER ON THE DARFUR CRISIS

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
Khartoum
7 April 2004

Responding to international accusations that lawless militias have been
committing serious human rights violations in the western region of
Darfur, Dr Sulaf al-Din Salih, the commissioner-general of Sudan's
Humanitarian Aid Commission, told IRIN that the international community
was misinformed about the reality in Darfur. The accusations, he added
during an interview in the capital, Khartoum, on 2 April, were part of a
campaign against the Sudanese government and people. Below are excerpts:

QUESTION: Since December 2003, the humanitarian situation in Darfur has
reportedly got considerably worse. What has happened?

ANSWER: I don't consider that the situation has got considerably worse.
On the contrary, I think the situation has really improved since then.
Everyone knows this was triggered by a rebel attack on civilians, on
government properties, on government projects. And it was quite a
natural thing that the government authorities, as well as the local
communities, started fighting back at the rebellion. It peaked when many
areas were not accessible. But now almost all areas, except for a
limited area in the Jabal Marrah, are accessible. Now we have national
and international NGOs placed in the area. We are encouraging local NGOs
from Darfur, and they are making their own campaign for collecting
donations and establishing their offices there.

QUESTION: So humanitarian access is better now, but there are many
reports that the situation on the ground is much worse.

ANSWER: It is not true, it is not true. And I'm quite sure, because we
are in every village, we receive reports, and we follow up on the
situation very well. There is no famine, there are still some attacks
between different groups, bandits moving around, but definitely there
are more police forces going to the area, more army to keep the security
of the people in the field. So we think that things are improving quite
a lot.

QUESTION: The Janjawid [militias], plus the army, have been accused of
ethnic cleansing or a scorched earth policy. Reports say the situation
is getting worse and will continue. How do you respond to that?

ANSWER: We think this is a political campaign. Unfortunately, the UN
office here in Sudan and worldwide has been part of this political
campaign against the government. This is very serious - we are really
considering an option of taking the UN out of the area. This is very
serious because these statements are not true. This is false
information, because they [the UN] don't have the ability to access all
the areas. So now the UN office worldwide is producing data which is
quite contrary to what is happening in the field. This has been used by
many political groups against the government, against the whole peace
process.

QUESTION: It's not just the UN though. Other groups such as Human Rights
Watch, groups that are very highly respected worldwide, are also
reporting the same thing.

ANSWER: They are not in the field. We are having problems, yes. It has
mounted into some sort of tribal conflict, but we are exerting the
maximum effort from the government side to stop this. At first it was
one group, a political rebellion, then it became a tribal conflict. But
as I said, we have managed to get the fullest commitment from all the
tribal leaders to stop this. This is one of the major projects for the
government: to bring the social fabric back again.

QUESTION: So the tribal leaders have committed [themselves] to stopping
the violence. But do they control the Janjawid?

ANSWER: It is not only the Janjawid. People forget about the other
groups called Tora Bora and others as well. Definitely the government
did not have enough forces to control all the area. So these groups have
committed atrocities and have gone beyond the normal security or
military operations. But it is the commitment of the government, and
this has been raised by the president on all the committees, that
everyone has to be under control of the army or the police. I think we
have succeeded in controlling all these groups to a very great extent.
Up to now, there are still some activities, but far less than there used
to be.

QUESTION: There have been many accusations that the army is involved in
the attacks, working alongside the militias. Do you accept that, and
what is being done to stop it?

ANSWER: If there is any such claim, we want to know it so we can
investigate. We know of some cases where things were brought to court.
But we do welcome, really welcome, any specific cases so we can
investigate.

QUESTION: The last time we spoke in December, you talked about the fact
that the government had supported the militias in an effort to fight the
rebellion in Darfur, that it had called people forward to fight the
rebels.

ANSWER: We asked all the people of Darfur to help in protecting
themselves against the rebellion. This is standard practice which we do
in this country. Whenever there is an attack on a community, we ask the
local community to support, to help.

QUESTION: But we have a situation now where the same people are
committing atrocities

ANSWER: Now the situation is largely under control by the armed forces,
the police and local authorities. Also because of the involvement of
local leaders, local chiefs in the peace process, there is a better
humanitarian situation compared to the past. But I think that the
international community should be fair and positive enough to state that
it was the rebel groups which started attacking. They're the ones who
ignited the whole problem in the area. And then it became a sort of
catalytic [sic] thing, of people fighting back or defending themselves,
or even going beyond defending themselves... We have a list of
atrocities committed by the rebel groups - killing, raping, looting,
destroying development projects. In South Darfur, they have been killing
people inside hospitals - patients. So I think the international
community should adopt a more balanced vision and approach to the
problem.

QUESTION: You mentioned there being more army and police enforcement in
Darfur, and yet reports are still continuing of atrocities. What is
being done to arrest or stop either the Janjawid or the rebels?

ANSWER: We have asked the judicial system there, the police and the army
to take things into their hands, and for people to report to the police
and to take cases to court so that everyone can raise their case in
front of the judicial system. It will take some time from our own
experience, because we don't have many courts. It is the tribal system
which is going to have the major role. These tribes have their own
mechanisms of settling problems between themselves. They have their own
systems of compensation, or recognition, and there are very major claims
of looting of thousands of herds and killing of people.

QUESTION: You keep coming back to the statement that the international
community has a false impression of what is happening in Darfur. Why is
this?

ANSWER: It is a campaign, a political campaign led by groups against the
people of Sudan, the government of Sudan. This is an imbalance, it is
not fair. Our position is the following: yes, we have a problem, we had
a very serious problem in the past. We managed to control it in a
reasonable way. Things are improving in terms of delivery of aid, of
controlling atrocities. But there are still some problems. We recognise
this, we want the international community to help us to bypass and bring
safety and security and reach some sort of an agreed solution to the
problem. This problem did not start last year. They [people of Darfur]
have had their own political concerns for more than 40 years. So now one
of the decisions of the ministerial committee is to look in depth into
the reasons for the grievances. I think this is a real challenge for us
now, how we identify the reasons: marginalisation or an unbalanced
approach to the area or whatever; but really we have to look at the root
causes of the problem and try to tackle them.

QUESTION: In the event of a ceasefire, what will be done to allow the
hundreds of thousands of displaced people to go back to their homes?

ANSWER: People are already going back home. People have the ability to
assess the situation, whether they can go back or not. This has been
done through local mechanisms or tribal systems. They make an agreement
between themselves that they are going to protect this process of
return, that no one is going to attack them. So whether there is a
ceasefire or not, this process has already started.

QUESTION: Will the government be giving assurances to people that they
can move back?

ANSWER: We are already giving these assurances to people. But as I have
said, the people are making their own decisions. They have their own
system of sensing whether it is safe or not to go back. We are trying to
encourage it, but definitely it is their own decision. The state
government, the local authorities, as well as the local chiefs, are
helping them to make that decision. But it is quite a voluntary process.