UN warns of new trouble in Sudan
Sudan’s president has accepted responsibility for the Darfur conflict but accused the International Criminal Court (ICC) of conducting a "campaign of lies," The Guardian reported as the United Nations warned that military tensions and political disputes pose a new threat to Africa’s biggest nation.
President Omar al-Bashir—who was charged with genocide by the ICC in July 2010—made the admission during an interview with the British newspaper.
"Of course, I am the president so I am responsible about everything happening in the country," said Mr. Bashir when asked about the conflict, which the United Nations believes has claimed more than 300,000 lives.
"But what happened in Darfur, first of all, was a traditional conflict taking place from the colonial days," the Sudanese leader said.
President Bashir, who Wednesday faced protests from supporters of Darfur rebel chief Abdul Wahid Nour, played down the UN’s estimated toll and justified his government’s actions in Sudan’s war-torn western region.
"It is a duty for the government to fight the insurgents, but we did not fight the people of Darfur," he said.
Thousands protested Wednesday in Zalingi, a town in western Darfur, carrying opposition group Sudan Liberation Movement flags and pictures of the rebel leader, chanting slogans against the president and complaining of rising food prices, Agence-France Press reported.
Police used tear gas and batons to disperse the demonstrators, arresting 23 and wounding numerous others.
According to UN figures, around 1.8 million people have been forced to flee their homes in Darfur since non-Arab rebels first rose up against the Arab-dominated Khartoum regime in 2003.
Mr. Bashir, 67, and state Governor Ahmed Harun are both wanted by the ICC for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.
The president denies all charges and criticized Luis Moreno Ocampo, the ICC’s chief prosecutor.
President Bashir came to power in 1989 when he, as a brigadier in the Sudanese army, led a group of officers in a bloodless military coup that ousted the government of Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi.
The UN, meanwhile, said that a tangle of mounting military tensions and political disputes poses a new threat to Sudan as it heads toward division in less than three months.
The southern Sudan government, which is to formally declare independence on July 9, faces challenges from insurgents and militias in its own territory, a top UN official warned, according to AFP.
Sudan’s total population is estimated at 42 million, with 8.5 million in the south.
Southern Sudan held a referendum in January in which the population voted overwhelmingly to break from the Arab-dominated north. That vote was part of an accord that ended a civil war in which two million people died.
The euphoria in the south has quickly ended. A rebel attack on a Sudan’s People Liberation Army (SPLA) base in Unity State on Tuesday left 20 soldiers dead, according to the army.
"Tensions in the south have risen, particularly conflicts between the SPLA and insurgents and militia" in the south’s Jonglei, Upper Nile and Unity states, Atul Khare, an UN assistant secretary general told the UN Security Council.
One UN peacekeeper was killed in an ambush this month, and three UN workers abducted in January remain missing in Darfur.
"The government of southern Sudan will need to take concrete measures to address ethnic tensions, mismanagement, political and social marginalization, economic development and governance," Mr. Khare said.