Ethnic cleansing and genocide investigation: UN Commission due in Khartoum November 6, 2004

UN Commission are due in Khartoum next week to investigate allegations of ethnic cleansing and genocide in Darfur.

Justice Minister Ali Osman Yassin told Al Rai Al Aam newspaper that he was officially notified by the UN on Thursday that the commission would arrive on November 6.

A five-member UN panel has been created by Secretary General Kofi Annan to look into allegations of genocide and investigate reports of violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law in Darfur.

The Sudanese minister of justice and attorney general Ali Muhammad Othman Yassin said that the UN committee will start its mission by convening a meeting with the Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the minister of foreign affairs Mustafa Othman Ismael and the minister of the Interior Abdul Rahim Muhammad Hussein.

The Sudanese government announced it is ready to receive the committee and to give it all necessary facilitation and aid to carry out its mission in Darfu

The Sudanese government has said the U.N.'s death toll is hugely exaggerated, putting the toll at about 7,000.