SUDAN: The was neither genocide nor ethnic cleansing, but there was urgent humanitarian need, Sudan's foreign minister, Dr Mustafa Osman Ismail, tells Marie O'Halloran
Sudan's foreign Minister is apparently nicknamed "Mr Smile" by both friend and foe.
But there has been very little smiling lately for Dr Mustafa Osman Ismail, who has met numerous international delegations expressing their strong opinions about the role of the Sudanese government in the crisis affecting the Darfur region of one of the world's least developed countries.
Last weekend it was the turn of the Irish delegation, led by Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Mr Tom Kitt, to put the pressure on the Sudanese.
As two Irish journalists waited in the ante-room of his office, hoping for a rare interview, the quiet was disturbed by raised voices from the meeting, which was extended from 30 minutes to an hour.
Irish officials afterwards said there was a "full and frank" exchange of views about the conflict, which has left thousands dead and 1.2 million people displaced to camps, some in less than basic conditions, in the rainy season.
The Minister, from Drongola in north Sudan, continued his combative mode when it was the turn of the reporters, with a list of his own complaints about the international community and the media.
"We accept (international) criticism in the sense that we are the government, we are responsible for the security of our people, for the feeding of our people."
But "the criticism is unbalanced because the international media are not presenting the case as it is".
There was neither genocide nor ethnic cleansing, but there was urgent humanitarian need and this was backed up by the UN, he insisted.
The government was a "playing factor" but there were others, including neighbouring Eritrea which was assisting rebels through training camps.
The international media did not recognise what the government of Khartoum had done in granting recent access to humanitarian agencies including the UN, he said.
Khartoum wants to be thanked for allowing aid agencies into Darfur 18 months after intense fighting between rebels and armed militias began, resulting in the displacement of a huge swathe of the population of Darfur, countless deaths and huge personal traumas.
It is only in the past two or three weeks that the restrictions have been lifted and aid workers allowed into the country in any numbers.
The director of USAID has suggested that 300,000 people will die in Darfur regardless of what is done.
Dr Ismail's response is that he wouldn't believe the figure.
"There were going to be a number of deaths but if you go to Khartoum, the number of deaths in Khartoum is more than in Darfur. We have malaria, tropical diseases and sometimes there are epidemics, even in Khartoum. You shouldn't compare Darfur with Dublin."
The response of the UN humanitarian co-ordinator, Mr Erick de Mul, is that "the government of Sudan hardly ever goes to these places, hence the rhetoric about disease figures. A combination of ignorance and an attempt by the government of Sudan to paint an upbeat positive picture."
Dr Ismail has been there several times and will be going again next week.
Asked about terrified villagers being forced to return to their villages, he says "we are going to send a joint team this week from the UN, from the donors and from the government of Sudan to make sure those who go back to their home have not been forced and those who are going are going voluntarily."
How could he accept that the government was forcing them now that the donors, embassies and the UN were going with him to visit Mornei camp in Darfur next week, where they were welcome to check that information?
Minister Ismail spoke to the Irish delegation mid-morning on Saturday. Less than an hour later, the UN's humanitarian co-ordinator was telling a different story. Mr de Mul said there were reports of security forces going to the same camp with the apparent plan of removing some 10,000 of the 70,000 people there.
As part of the communiqué signed with the UN Secretary general, police would be sent to camps to protect the vulnerable inhabitants. Whatever they were doing, it was "not necessarily to protect", said Mr de Mul.
As to the government's involvement in backing the Janjaweed, the armed militias on horseback, who marauded and murdered, Dr Ismail insisted that there was no government backing.
"The government never supported the Janjaweed. Yes, they make use of the environment of the war. They extensify their effort. The government has already started to disarm and arrest them, and I think the government will be in a position to deal with them."
However, only last week the man deemed the chief of the Janjaweed, Mr Musa Hilal gave an interview to the Guardian newspaper and said that at the prompting of the government he raised a militia from his clan to fight the rebellion.
"The government was putting forward a programme of arming for all the people," he is quoted as saying, but the Janjaweed was not a political organisation as had been claimed.
People in camps visited by the Irish delegation reported attacks on villages by helicopters and that the militia wore government uniforms and were armed.
But Dr Ismail says "the media are not concentrating on the UN. They are concentrating on individual cases. For example, media go and meet somebody without investigating whether this is right or wrong, then you put it forward."
He said there had been no helicopter attacks for at least a month. But before that? After all this has been going on since February 2003.
"We were at war" he retorted in a raised voice. "Up to the end of January, February, we were fighting the rebels, but after that we sign a ceasefire in El Gemeina."
Asked how he felt about the tragedy at a personal level, he said "definitely I am sad. I am very sad. I will not be happy unless every individual, children, women and elderly go back home. I am not the one who triggered this war. The rebels are the ones who triggered this war and everybody knows it. I am trying hard to settle the problem.
"The international community, instead of coming to help me, are concentrating on criticism. They are concentrating on trying to criminalise the government and others, which is not a sensible approach." This is a form of warning.
The UN co-ordinator says that Security Council sanctions are still a "live option". If the Mornei camp situation developed there would be international "outrage", but he conceded that "it all depends on how seriously this government takes the possible threat of a Security Council resolution". "They might say 'we have heard them bark, but they don't bite."
