Wednesday, July 04, 2007

EU officials say no improvement in Darfur security

Reuters) - European parliamentarians said on Wednesday that Sudan's troubled Darfur region had become no safer since a peace treaty was signed a year ago.

Widespread insecurity in the remote Western region was preventing any development there, the 10-member delegation from the European parliament's development committee said following a three-day visit there.

They blamed fragmentation of rebel groups and the failure to disarm militias, some of which were being incorporated into the army, for the continued conflict.

"We have observed that today the security has not improved since the peace agreement one year ago," delegation head Josep Borrell Fontelles told reporters, referring to a peace deal signed in 2006 by only one of three negotiating rebel groups.

"There is a general widespread insecurity due to the fragmentation of the rebel groups ... due to the fact that the Janjaweed (militia) are still armed and some of them included in regular Sudanese armed forces," he added. Read more >>>>>>>>

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