Sudanese gov't criticizes Human rights watch report on Darfur

The Sudanese government on Tuesday criticized a report issued by the Human Rights Watch organization in which it said "the war in Darfur has not ended."

"This is one of the non-neutral organizations and has predetermined stances and political agenda. It issues its report to serve political purposes," said Amin Hassan Omer, head of the Sudanese government delegation to the peace negotiations with the rebel movements, in a press statement to Xinhua.

"There is a joint mechanism of the Sudanese government, the United Nations and the African Union to assess the situations in Darfur. There is also the joint United Nations and African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) together with the report submitted by the former UNAMID Head of mission Rodolph Adada, in which he said the war in Darfur had ended," the official said.

He expressed optimism that a positive progress would be achieved in the forthcoming round of peace talks between Khartoum and the Darfur rebels in the Qatari capital of Doha in October, under the patronage of the United Nations and the African Union.

"We see that there is great efforts made by the mediators and the supporting countries and we also see some encouraging progress that makes us believe that the coming round could be a real beginning for the negotiations, because the previous rounds were maneuvers from the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM)," he added, referring to a major rebel group.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch Tuesday issued a report in which it warned that "the war in Darfur has not ended," contradicting recent reports by officials in UNAMID.

"The recent clashes between the Sudanese armed forces and the rebels together with the random bombing in Darfur are evidence that the war is not over yet," the organization said in its report.

The organization issued the report on the same day a meeting on Darfur opened in the Russian capital of Moscow, with the participation of representatives from Sudan, the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain, the European Union and the Arab League.

Former joint Special Representative of UNAMID Rodolph Adada and former UNAMID Force Commander Martin Luther Agwai announced in September that the war phase in Darfur was over.

Source: Xinhua