DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (CNN)  -- Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir on Tuesday accused the international media of "exaggerating" the situation in Darfur to detract from atrocities in Iraq, the Palestinian territories and Somalia.

Refugees from Darfur gather at a camp in Chad. Sudan's president says the crisis in Darfur is a "media fabrication."

El-Bashir spoke at a news conference in Dubai following a three-day visit to the Persian Gulf emirate. He said the crisis in Sudan's western Darfur region is a "media fabrication."

El-Bashir's government has been blamed by the United Nations of supporting militias that conduct "indiscriminate attacks" on civilians in the Darfur region, including torture, rape, and killings.

Rebels fighting the government-backed militias have also been accused by the U.N. of widespread human rights abuses.

During Tuesday's news conference, el-Bashir restated his position that foreign intervention in Darfur was an obstacle in achieving peace in the region.

The Sudanese president has been outspoken in his opposition to allowing non-African forces in Darfur.

At the start of this year, more than 9,000 members of a joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force were deployed to the region to address the fighting and humanitarian suffering.

The force will eventually number 26,000.

Speaking on Tuesday, el-Bashir said that the fighting only affects 10 percent of the region. In the majority of Darfur, there is little to no conflict and people are living normal lives, he said.

Citing Sudanese government statistics, el-Bashir said that less than 10,000 people have died in the conflict and less than 500,000 have been displaced.

International figures, including United Nations' data, put the death toll in Darfur at approximately 200,000, with another 2.5 million people displaced by the violence since 2003.

The conflict started five years ago when ethnic African tribesmen took up arms, complaining of decades of neglect and discrimination by the Sudanese government.

Sudan's Arab-dominated government is accused of responding by unleashing the tribal militias known as janjaweed, which have committed the worst atrocities against Darfur's local communities.

El-Bashir, however, rejected claims that the Darfur conflict is being fought along ethnic lines. E-mail to a friend

CNN's Elham Nakhlawi in Dubai contributed to this report.
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