News Article by AFP posted on June 19, 2003 at 14:48:56: EST (-5 GMT)
Sudan seeks dialogue with people of violence-hit Darfur
KHARTOUM, June 19 (AFP) -- Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail appealed to the people of western Darfur to lay their down arms and enter a dialogue with the government, in an interview published here Thursday.
Ismail's interview in the independent newspaper Al-Ayam appeared to mark a shift in the government's policy toward a region where it had long denied any political dimension to unrest and taken a tough stand on security.
Al-Ayam had asked him to comment on an interview which John Garang, the leader of rebels in southern Sudan, gave the London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat on Tuesday, urging Khartoum to negotiate with the rebels in western Darfur.
"Regardless of a call by Garang or any other person, the Darfur problem can be solved politically rather than militarily," Ismail said.
"We firmly and earnestly call upon the people of Darfur to lay down arms and to declare this loudly and come for dialogue," Ismail was quoted as saying in Al-Ayam.
"The government does not isolate any individual or group but, rather, seeks to negotiate with all parties," Ismail said, adding that the Darfur problem stemmed from the region's need for development.
The government has drawn up development programs that require internal and foreign finance, and Darfur has been listed among the regions slated for development projects after peace is achieved in Sudan, he said.
The Sudan Liberation Army/Movement (SLM) has claimed a number of attacks since it surfaced there for the first time in February.
The government had refused to acknowledge any political motivation for unrest in the states of North, South and West Darfur, blaming it instead on "armed criminal gangs and outlaws", who it says are aided by tribes from neighboring Chad.
The Sudanese authorities have also accused Garang's Sudan People's Liberation Army rebels of helping the rebellion in the Darfur region, a charge the SPLA has denied.
The SLM is not included in the framework of peace talks aimed at ending Khartoum's 20-year civil war with the SPLA.
It has never acknowledged any link with the SPLA, but called in mid-March for an "understanding" with other opposition forces fighting the Khartoum government.