This bleak view of Darfur is based on outdated stereotypes

While Ros Wynne-Jones does address some of the dangers that threaten Sudan's 2005 comprehensive peace agreement, this year's elections, and the 2011 referendum, she combines convoluted conflict histories with gloomy predictions, to present only the bleakest picture (Sudan's new year of fear, 6 January).

Her claim, for example, that Darfur's internally displaced population's "fate is worse than death" relies on outdated stereotypes and ignores the fact that UN figures show Darfur's mortality rate to be below the region's pre-conflict level – and lower than the figures for sub-­Saharan Africa. Médecins Sans Frontières have noted that Darfuris are receiving better healthcare than people in other parts of Sudan, in some cases even better than those in Khartoum. And efforts are under way to return displaced people to their homes – made difficult by continuing banditry from rebel groups and the logistical challenges presented by a region the size of France.

Wynne-Jones recalls that President Bashir expelled "several aid agencies out of Darfur", but fails to mention that substitutes were allowed in soon afterwards, that hundreds of NGOs continued operating in the meantime, and that the United Nations judges the humanitarian situation to be satisfactory.

The grim picture Wynne-Jones presents of Darfur is further undermined by the simple fact that reporting from the UN, the African Union and western journalists actually based in Darfur reveals that a calm now holds. Even the anti-Sudan activist Professor Eric Reeves, in a New York Times article this month, admitted that he was "slow to recognise how significant" the reduction in violence has been.

Furthermore, Wynne-Jones, in mentioning the self-styled international criminal court, speciously states that President Bashir is wanted "for war crimes including genocide". ICC judges did not approve charges of genocide, which many agree were unfounded. And while the ICC may call itself international, it is in effect a European court, overwhelmingly funded by Africa's former European colonial powers, serving European ­objectives, and representing only around 25% of the world's population. The ICC's legal blundering has endangered both peace processes in Sudan.

Wynne-Jones also fixates on oil revenues and, ironically, cites poverty in southern Sudan. Rather than focusing on the equitable oil-revenue-sharing mechanism agreed within our inter­nationally brokered peace agreement, she should perhaps ask what happened to the several billion dollars allocated to the southern Sudanese government. She makes no mention of the arms shipments they purchased, including tanks, or the presence of Blackwater contractors in the south. And she fails to mention that the south's SPLM militia have effectively disfranchised hundreds of thousands of southern Sudanese living in northern Sudan for the coming referendum.

I do agree with her that the only way forward is dialogue. This dialogue, however, must be based on facts and not cynical, skewed reporting.

Ghazi Salahuddin Atabani, an adviser to the president of Sudan, and leader of the parliamentary majority.