UN’s Annan spearheading conspiracy against Sudan – lawmaker

Sept 12, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — A senior Sudanese lawmaker Tuesday accused U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan of spearheading a conspiracy against the country over a plan to deploy U.N. peacekeepers in the war-torn Darfur region.

The U.S. is leading the conspiracy, which “began as a political campaign in the U.N. and is now taking the form of a military intervention,” Ismail Haj Mussa, a senior member of the Sudanese Parliament, told the official Radio Omdurman

The U.N. has been trying to persuade Sudan to allow the U.N. to take over an African Union peacekeeping force that has been unable to stop the violence in the western Darfur region. But Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir has repeatedly rejected the proposal and has warned that his army would fight any U.N. forces sent to Darfur.

Mussa Tuesday also accused Annan of placing the U.N. at the disposal of the U.S.

“Thanks to Kofi Annan, there is no longer an independent U.N. but only a section within the American State Department,” Mussa said.

A U.N. Security Council resolution passed last month calls for the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers but acknowledges that the force could not enter Sudan without the government’s consent. More than 200,000 people have died from war and starvation in Darfur.

Annan Monday placed much of the blame for the current humanitarian crisis, which he said has also displaced 1.9 million people, on the Sudanese government.

The African Union’s Peace and Security Council will meet on Sept. 18 in New York, just before this year’s U.N. General Assembly meeting, to discuss breaking the Darfur deadlock.

(AP/ST)