Five hundred Sudanese militiamen in government service disarmed in western Darfur on Friday at a ceremony attended by U.N. envoy Jan Pronk, due to report next week on the security situation in the region. The uniformed members of the Popular Defence Forces, an official militia recruited to fight Darfur rebels, handed in rifles, machineguns and other light weapons at the militia headquarters in Geneina, capital of West Darfur state. But the men said they were not Arab Janjaweed irregulars blamed for killing, raping and looting in Darfur in a campaign of ethnic cleansing aimed at African villagers. "We did not arm them for ethnic cleaning or genocide but so that they might maintain security and stability in their areas... There are no outlaws or Janjaweed amongst them," said Mahmoud Zein al-Abdin, the commander of their unit. One of the commanders said 1,500 of the militiamen would hand in their weapons by September 1. Pronk was on his last field trip before reporting to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in New York on whether Khartoum is meeting its commitment to disband the Janjaweed and improve security for refugees, or face possible sanctions. He told the men they had done the right thing and the United Nations would press the Darfuri rebel forces to follow suit. Sudan has a few days left to prove that it is making progress on compliance with the U.N. Security Council resolution passed on July 30.
