The Prime Minister and Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabor Al Thani yesterday said Qatar was implementing a programme to facilitate the return of displaced people and refugees to Darfur.
The initial phase of the project targets 150,000 people at a cost of $31m, while the next phase costing $529m will help rehabilitate some two million people in 45 villages in five regions of Darfur.
Inaugurating the International Donors Conference for Recons-truction and Development of Darfur, at Ritz-Carlton Hotel, the Premier said the return of displaced people and refugees to their native places was an urgent mission. Sudanese First Vice-President Ali Osman Mohammad Taha, Qatar’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs H E Ahmad bin Abdullah Al Mahmoud, regional and international partners for peace in Darfur and representatives of donor countries and regional and international organisations attended.
Qatar agreed to head the Arab-African Committee on Darfur Peace out of its humanitarian and ethical responsibilities as well as its Arab obligations and Islamic values, the Premier said, pointing out that it had not been driven by any agenda. It did not exclude anyone, did not favour one party at the expense of another and did not distinguish between groups or movements, the Premier stressed.
He called on participants to allocate adequate spending in their programmes for education and said increasing awareness and spread of education would deepen the culture of tolerance and confirm conviction for peace and the futility of wars and conflicts.
“It is a task that needs big finance as there are tens of thousands of people in Darfur living for years in displacement camps at home and in refugee camps in Chad, and the return of those requires rehabilitation of their original areas by building homes, schools and hospitals so they can resume their normal lives,” he said.
At the political level, a regional authority has been established in Darfur, which has set up its administrative structures, executive and legislative bodies and begun to function in coordination with the central authority in Khartoum and the governors of Darfur’s five regions, the Premier added.
At the economic level, the road network is now being built and agricultural projects has resumed after years of stoppage.
Source :
Qatar Chronicle
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