Sudanese govt cracks down on Janjaweed militias in Darfur

Tuesday July 13th, 2004.

KHARTOUM, Sudan, (PANA) -- Under growing international pressure to deliver on its pledge to rein in pro-government Arab militia rampaging the restive western region of Darfur, Khartoum affirmed Monday that it had so far taken some 46 Janjaweed fighters in custody.

"Tens of Janjaweed militias have been apprehended in the last few days and they will be brought to justice," Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail told reporters here.

The swoop on the marauding Janjaweed comes against the backdrop of intense pressure from UN secretary general Kofi Annan and US secretary of state Colin Powell, who toured the Darfur recently.

Earlier this month, President Omar Hassan el-Bashir ordered state security institutions to disarm the militias, provide access for aid workers and to hold talks with rebels to defuse the crisis in Darfur.

According to the authorities in Khartoum, 12 police stations have been re-established to cover the whole area, extending from the Jabal Marra mountain range through Nyala town and up to the border with Chad.

Government sources said some 46,000 internally displaced people had returned to their homes in Habila and Mukjar in West Darfur State, as security was gradually restored. They said Arabs and Masalit tribes were joining hands in re-building homes of the displaced in the two villages.

The latest contingent policemen (1,054-strong) arrived in Darfur on Monday, bringing the deployment there in the last ten days, to nearly 7,000.

Unimpressed, the US warned Monday that it was pursuing consultations with western countries for possible sanctions against the Khartoum government.

"There is a mixed picture with reports of positive and negative action, but we have seen more words than action so far," Khartoum newspapers quoted US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher as saying.