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| Africa: Horn |
| Khartoum Allows UN Team to Probe Darfur Atrocities |
| 2004-04-21 |
| Sudan will let a UN team into the country within days to probe alleged atrocities by government-backed militia in the Western Darfur region after initially blocking them, a UN spokesman said yesterday. Khartoumâs U-turn over the UN visit came a day before the United Nationsâ top human rights forum was due to vote on a resolution condemning widespread violence in Sudan. It also prompted the mission to postpone the release of a report yesterday on the situation following their initial mission to see refugees who had fled Darfur into neighboring Chad. âWe have just learned from the Sudanese authorities that they will allow now the team to go to Khartoum and Darfur,â said UN human rights spokesman Jose Diaz. âThe team will be going we hope in the next coming days.â The five UN experts had been in Chad since April 5 interviewing Sudanese refugees who escaped alleged ethnic cleansing by Arab militia in Darfur, but they had been forced to return to Geneva last week after being denied entry into Sudan. The same UN team will travel to Sudan to finish their work but their schedule is still being fixed and it was unclear how long they will stay. Upon their final return to Geneva, the mission will issue a report containing âconclusions and recommendations for further action on the very serious situation in that part of the world,â Diaz said. On the ground, talks set between the warring sides in Darfur were delayed 24-hours until today, a member of a Chadian mediation team told AFP. A Sudanese government delegation is expected to meet representatives from the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement in Nâdjamena, the Chadian capital, the mediator said. |
| Posted by:Fred |