Sudan rejects need for UN in Darfur
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir today rejected the deployment of UN troops in Darfur, saying they were not required and that African Union troops could maintain order in the war-wracked region of western Sudan.
His comment contradicted statements by Sudanese officials, who said last month the government would accept a limited number of UN forces, as well those of AU officials who had proposed that the world body take over peacekeeping in Darfur.
“Our experience with UN operations in the world is not encouraging,” al-Bashir said today at his residence.
“There are sufficient forces in the Sudan from African countries to maintain order and they can provide order. All we need is funding for the African troops.”
Al-Bashir’s remarks showed his government has backtracked on its word in December when Sudanese officials said Khartoum would implement the plan for a UN deployment in Darfur announced by outgoing Secretary-General Kofi Annan at a meeting in Addis Ababa.
More than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million forced to flee their homes in nearly four years of fighting in Darfur. US President George Bush has labelled the violence “genocide” against the region’s ethnic African community. An African Union force of 7,000 troops has tried to halt the conflict, but their commander has acknowledged they are overwhelmed.
“The force is too small to do the job,” Maj. Gen. Luke Aprezi said yesterday when Richardson visited the AU headquarters in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur. ”We need more troops on the ground.”
Al-Bashir has long resisted international pressure to deploy UN peacekeepers in Darfur, saying they would be ”colonialist.” But it is thought that he fears a large UN presence would constrain Sudanese army troops and their allied janjaweed militia, as well as make it more likely that suspected war criminals be brought to trial by the International Criminal Court. Al-Bashir has refused to hand over suspects to the ICC.
Al-Bashir spoke today after talks with New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, a potential US Democratic Party candidate for president in 2008 who is visiting Sudan on a mission to help bring peace to Darfur.
Richardson, who has met twice with al-Bashir since he arrived Sunday, had hoped he could persuade Sudan’s leader to change his mind on the UN deployment.
Richardson has placed some of the blame for the continuing violence on the rebels who refused to sign the May accord, which was brokered by US and Nigerian negotiators in Abuja, Nigeria.
“The situation is deteriorating,” Richardson told Sudanese reporters waiting outside the presidential residence Wednesday. “I’m concerned about it. I believe that the rebel groups need to become signatories to the peace agreement, the Abuja peace agreement. And we press the rebel groups very strongly to become part of the peace process.”
Also today, the new UN envoy for Darfur, Jan Eliasson, met Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol for talks. A former Swedish foreign minister, Eliasson dined with Richardson after his arrival yesterday on his first visit to Sudan since his appointment.
Eliasson told reporters today that al-Bashir’s letter to Annan last month had given him “strong hope” that a political settlement in Darfur could be reached. The letter has not been made public.
Eliasson is expected to see al-Bashir tomorrow.
The Save Darfur Coalition brought Richardson to Sudan because the governor had successfully negotiated in the past with al-Bashir. In September, the governor persuaded al-Bashir to release a New Mexico journalist imprisoned in Darfur. He also worked with al-Bashir in 1996 to negotiate the release of three Red Cross workers kidnapped by Sudanese rebels.
The fighting in Darfur began in February 2003 when the region’s ethnic African population revolted against what they saw as decades of neglect and discrimination by the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum. The government launched a counter-insurgency in which the janjaweed, an Arab militia, committed widespread atrocities.
The government denies backing the janjaweed, but the United Nations, the AU and international aid organisations say Khartoum has massively armed the militia and given regular army support to its attacks.
