Sudan Bashir meets Annan; rejects UN troops in Darfur
Sept 16, 2006 (HAVANA) — Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir rejected the deployment of U.N. peacekeeping troops in his country’s war-torn Darfur region during a meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
“Justice is and remains our objective but through diplomatic, political and other means,” he told a news conference Saturday after talking with Annan at the Nonaligned Movement summit, according to the English translation of his statement in Arabic. “That’s why we reject this position.”
Annan urged the government of Sudan in an editorial distributed Saturday to accept the U.N. Security Council’s decision to replace the largely ineffective African Union force in Darfur with better-equipped U.N. peacekeepers.
“There can be no military solution to the crisis in Darfur,” Annan wrote. “All parties should have understood by now, after so much death and destruction that only a political agreement, in which all stakeholders are fully engaged, can bring real peace to the region.”
The possibility of U.N. intervention was welcomed by Salva Kiir Mayardit, a Sudanese vice president with ties to the southern rebels who have been battling Janjaweed militias. But al-Bashir’s government has refused.
More than 200,000 people have been killed in Darfur and over 2 million have fled their homes since 2003 when ethnic African tribes revolted against the Arab-led government. The government is accused of unleashing brutal Arab militiamen known as Janjaweed in the remote western province.
The mandate for a weak African Union peacekeeping force, which hasn’t been able to stop the violence, expires next month.
On Friday, U.S. President George W. Bush said it could be time to send international peacekeepers into Darfur over the objections of the government in Khartoum.
“What you’ll hear is, well, the government of Sudan must invite the United Nations in for us to act,” Bush said. “Well, there are other alternatives, like passing a U.N. resolution saying we’re coming in with a U.N. force in order to save lives.”
(AP/ST)