PRETORIA – Saleh Mahmood Osman chooses his words carefully. The human rights lawyer makes it clear that, although he comes from strife-torn Darfur, he does not bear ill will toward the Sudanese diplomats who have come to listen to his address in the South African capital, Pretoria.
Given that Osman was detained by Sudanese officials from February until September this year, his words seem generous.
"We used to provide legal aid to survivors of the Darfur conflict," he told about a hundred participants at a one-day seminar on the situation in Darfur, organized by the Pretoria-based Africa Institute of South Africa, Wednesday.
"They detained me for nine months and I was released without charge," he added, smiling. Osman works for the Sudan Organization Against Torture, a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.
However, Osman is unequivocal on this point: that the crisis in the western region of Darfur, which began in February 2003, is as serious as the multitude of media reports on the matter suggests (the diplomats claim reports are exaggerated).
"The situation in Darfur is not improving at all. People are still afraid to go back to their original homes," said Osman, who visited the town of Nyala in southern Darfur earlier this month.
"When I was in Darfur some 400 villagers were displaced from their homes near Nyala by gunmen. These people are now in displaced camps," he noted.
The conflict in Darfur began after two loosely-allied rebel groups – the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) – took up arms to protest against alleged neglect of the area by officials.
The violence is underpinned by a tug-of-war over land rights between nomadic Arabs and settled farmers from the Fur, Masaalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups.
Government has cracked down on Darfur rebels, and is also accused of arming Arab militias called the "Janjaweed" (or "men on horseback") – this to conduct a scorched-earth campaign against the Fur, Masaalit and Zaghawa, who are suspected of providing support to the SLM/A and the JEM. While Khartoum admits to giving weapons to so-called self-defense militias, it denies supporting the Janjaweed.
As a result of the various campaigns underway in Darfur, about 50,000 people are said to have died – while up to 1.5 million have been displaced. Over 200,000 residents have fled over the border to Chad, although the refugee camps where they have settled are also vulnerable to attack.
During a visit to Khartoum Wednesday, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Sudan had agreed to five key demands that included identifying its troops and militias, and returning them to barracks. The rebels, in their turn, will be required to observe a ceasefire drawn up in April.
In addition, Sudan will accept a bigger deployment of African Union (AU) troops in the region, amounting to 3,500 soldiers. At present, just over 300 AU soldiers are present in Darfur to guard about 70 monitors who are overseeing the shaky truce.
But according to Osman, those in the teeming displaced persons camps in Darfur – which house an average of 80,000 people – have little faith in government’s ability to keep its promises.
"The people of Darfur have lost trust in the police and judiciary completely," Osman said. "They can’t trust the security forces because they say elements of the Janjaweed have been integrated into them."
He noted that government’s failure to rein in the Janjaweed showed that it was not committed to resolving the Darfur crisis, international pressure notwithstanding. His words echoed those of United Nations Special Envoy for Sudan Jan Pronk, who told the Security Council Tuesday there had been no improvement in security in Darfur.
Blair’s demands to Khartoum also include the drawing up of a peace agreement between government and rebels. Negotiations held in Nigeria last month collapsed in the wake of rebel demands that Janjaweed militias be the first to disarm in Darfur.
But, while Sudan may have agreed to an expanded AU force, concerns remain about the ability of these troops to actively police the April ceasefire.
"The AU mission to Darfur is based on goodwill. It has no power to enforce compliance," Monica Jumo of Safer Africa, a South African NGO, told the Pretoria gathering.
To date, Sudan has also resisted changing the mandate of the AU forces to allow them to disarm the Janjaweed.
Yet, "The disarming of the Janjaweed is crucial to stability in Darfur," said Samleko Roberts of the British-based NGO Amnesty International, who returned from Darfur three weeks ago.
"If Sudan’s government, which armed the Janjaweed, cannot disarm them, then they should seek international assistance," he added.
In addition, there are growing concerns that the Darfur crisis could upset peace talks to end civil war in southern Sudan, where a fragile ceasefire is in place.
"War could soon break out again across Sudan unless negotiations between the government and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) that resume on 7 October produce a quick and conclusive peace agreement," a Brussels-based think-tank – the International Crisis Group (ICG) – warned this week.
"The international community must deal with the country’s multiple conflicts comprehensively and urgently," it added.
Since 2002, government and SPLM/A representatives have been meeting near the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, to discuss an accord that will end their 21-year conflict. Negotiators have already reached agreement on several important matters, including the sharing of oil revenues and the creation of a government of national unity.
"We don’t want the negotiation which has been going on for long to disintegrate, and war breaks out," Hagar Islamously, Egypt’s ambassador to South Africa, said in Pretoria.
More than two million people have died as a result of the war in south Sudan, while an additional five million have been displaced.
"The [SLM/A and JEM] rebels took up arms when peace was about to be signed between the Sudan government and the SPLA," Kuol Alor, Sudan’s ambassador to South Africa told delegates in Pretoria. "Maybe the Darfur rebels felt that they would be left out of the peace deal and wanted their cut."
