Blair puts five demands before Khartoum to solve Darfur crisis
Sudan-UK, Politics, 10/7/2004

British prime minister Tony Blair on Wednesday described the situation in Darfur district in Sudan as horrible and gave to the Sudanese government a list of demands in order to improve the situation there.

Blair called following talks in Khartoum with the Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir for reaching a comprehensive peace agreement including the southern and northern parts of Sudan by the end of the current year. He said in a press conference he had issued a list of five demands aiming at ending the conflict continued since 19 months and the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.

In addition to the comprehensive peace agreement, Blair called for increasing the number of the African federation forces and define all the government and militia forces and finalizing an agreement with the rebels to withdraw the forces as well as Khartoum facilitation of the process of distributing aid.

The British prime minister said that his heading to Khartoum reveals the "seriousness by which this matter is dealt with." He described his talks with al-Bashir and his deputy Ali Othman Taha as "frank and open" and considered that Khartoum should implement any commitment to peace.

He played down the idea of sending British soldiers to the region and stressed that '"pressure is still continuous" on Khartoum despite the fact that the threat to impose sanctions on it is not immediate.

The UN security council threatened to impose sanctions on Sudan in case of its failure to taking steps to ease down conditions in Darfur.

Contrary to the US secretary of state Collin Powel, Blair will not visit Darfur but will head for Addis Ababa later in the day, yesterday.N.

Previous Stories:
  Khartoum accuses rebels of escalating international pressures over Darfur   (10/6/2004)
  Khatami urged Khartoum to challenge persons committing violence in Darfur   (10/6/2004)
  Continued escalation in Darfur crisis   (10/5/2004)
  Straw visits Darfur: al-Khartoum achieves a progress   (8/25/2004)
  Straw arrives in Khartoum   (8/24/2004)
  Britain is ready to cancel Sudan's debts after peace   (1/29/2004)

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