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Janjaweed Leader For Disarming "All Warring Parties"
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A photo for Movement for Justice and Equality rebels (AFP)
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KHARTOUM,
August 4 (IslamOnline.net) – The leader of the Arab militias accused
by Washington of being responsible for atrocities in Sudan’s Darfur
said Tuesday, August 3, he is willing to lay down arms should all
other warring parties do the same in compliance with the latest UN
Security Council Resolution.
The
latest UN Security Council Resolution concerning disarmament in
Darfur
should include all armed militias in the restive region, Janjaweed
leader Moussa Hilal said In an exclusive interview with
IslamOnline.net.
“If
disarmament is not all-encompassing, no body will care,” he told
IOL. “It makes no sense to disarm and leave us all by ourselves
facing bloody revenge sprees and ethnic cleansing.”
He
was referring to a provision in the
UNSC resolution, which condemned “all acts of violence and
violations of human rights and international humanitarian law by all
parties to the crisis, in particular by the Janjaweed, including
indiscriminate attacks on civilians, rapes, forced displacements, and
acts of violence especially those with an ethnic dimension”.
The
UNSC threatened
Sudan
with punitive measures if it failed to rein in the Arab militias
within one month.
More
than 10,000 people are said to have died in
Darfur
since the revolt against the government broke out among indigenous
ethnic minorities in February 2003.
The
United Nations has labeled the 16-month-old conflict as the world's
worst current humanitarian crisis, amid mixed reports putting the
number of people killed at 10,000 to 50,000 and over one million
forced to flee their homes.
Western
media and countries alleged that systematic ethnic cleansing and mass
rapes were taking place in the 125,000-square miles
Darfur
- almost the size of the
United Kingdom
.
But
Dr. Hussein Gezairy, Regional Director of World Health
Organization’s Eastern Mediterranean Region, told IslamOnline.net
Thursday, July 29, that the situation in the restive area did
not amount to genocide or ethnic cleansing as claimed.
On
Monday, August 2, The Guardian reported that British Prime Minister
Tony Blair is making the case for a "colonial
war" against Sudan because of its growing oil reserves,
as there are no signs of highly-touted claims of genocide in the Arab
country.
Another
Quagmire
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“If disarmament is not all-encompassing, no body will care,” Hilal said
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Hilal
said rebels in
Darfur
are misleading the
United States
and the UNSC by making "much fuss about nothing".
“I
warn that
Sudan
will be another quagmire for the
US
whose intelligence services had misled them into an Iraqi swamp that
badly tarnished the
US
image in the eyes of the peoples of the region and left its interests
vulnerable,” he warned.
Hilal
categorically denied responsibility for acts of violence in
Darfur
, including arsons and mass rapes, saying they are mere calumnies
fabricated by the rebels.
He
particularly blamed the Justice and Equality Movement for blemishing
his reputation, asserting that its leaders tried to forge an alliance
with him to defeat the government forces.
“I
don’t mind them taking any action against me, but it should be based
on fair investigation and counts of an independent fact-finding
commission.
“I’m
pretty sure that a fair trial will do justice to me and redeem my
reputation,” he added.
Reconciliation
Conference
Hilal
also called for holding a reconciliation conference brining together
the leaders of all tribes in
Darfur
to realize peace for the welfare of all Darfuris, Arabs and Africans
alike.
“We
only stick to our right to existence…We have been here for hundreds
of years and reject any solution to the crisis that ignores our rights
as it will end up with creating another [John]
Garang,” the leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement
(SPLM).
Sudan
’s Foreign Minister Mustafa Othman Ismail had warned that the
Sudanese army would fight back if foreign troops are sent to end the
conflict in the
Darfur
region.
"If
we are attacked, we will not sit silent," Ismail had said during
a visit to
Turkey
last month.
The
main rebel groups in
Darfur
walked
out from the African Union-mediated peace talks in the Ethiopian
capital, insisting their demands must be met before they would start
negotiating with
Khartoum
.
Taking
The Brunt
Hilal
further said that the Arabs in
Darfur
have taken the brunt of the crisis.
“The
rebellion is implementing a political agenda aimed at driving us out
of our homeland to break away from
Sudan
and establish a state in the west with no Arab population,” Hilal
told IOL.
“Since
1980s, the rebels have been circulating flyers calling for expelling
us and liberating
Sudan
from the Arabs as well they have launched systematic marauding
campaigns, but our pleas fell on deaf ears.”
He
said the successive governments, including the incumbent, “ignored
our pressing warnings and left us facing the African militias against
sepulchral silence from the international community”.
Asked
why Arab Darfuris did not resort to makeshift camps, Hilal said the
Arabs feel it is dishonor to leave their women and families sustain on
foreign aid.
“It
hurts our pride, so the men are responsible for providing for them in
hard times,” he said.
Hilal
also denied that he was battling the African militias in cahoots with
the government.
“We
have only joined the civil defense corps since the start of
confrontations between the government and the rebels to defend
Darfur
,” he said, noting that some 3,000 of Arab Darfuris had enrolled in
the army in 2003.
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