UN troops may jeopardize Sudan peace accord – army officer

Sept 14, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — A senior Sudanese army officer on Thursday said the deployment of U.N. peacekeeping forces in the war-torn Darfur region could jeopardize a May peace agreement between the government and a rebel group.

“The Abuja peace agreement has not provided for any role by the U.N. in implementation of the agreement, except a humanitarian role,” armed forces operations chief Gen. Ismat Abdel Rahman Zeinal Abdin told reporters in Khartoum.

“The deployment of international forces in Darfur is tantamount to abrogation of the Abuja peace agreement,” he said.

Sudan has resisted attempts by the U.N. to take over for the cash-strapped and understaffed African Union peacekeeping force that has been unable to stop the violence in the country’s western Darfur region.

More than 200,000 people have been killed and more than 2 million have fled their homes in Darfur since 2003, when ethnic African tribes revolted against the Arab-led Khartoum government. Darfur’s population is largely Muslim.

The May peace agreement signed by the government and one of the major rebel groups was supposed to help end the conflict in Darfur. Instead, it has sparked months of fighting between rival rebel factions that has added to the toll of the dead and displaced.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has said the change in peacekeepers would violate the country’s sovereignty and has warned that his army would fight any U.N. forces sent to Darfur.

Abdin said that the government would not allow the AU to transfer its duties to any other party and “will take up the peacekeeping responsibility by itself.”

He also denied reports that the government’s military has been carrying out fighting and bombing operations in North Darfur.

“It was the rebel movements that have begun the fighting and have announced that they are determined to undermine the … agreement and our reaction to fight back was in the context of our responsibility of maintaining peace in the area,” Abdin said.

Abdin called statements made by international officials that the government had conducted aerial bombings targeting civilians in northern Darfur “unfounded.”

“Those allegations are untrue, and no planes took part in the fighting,” he said.

(AP/ST)