AU calls for peacekeepers’ killers to face justice

Oct 12, 2005 (KHARTOUM) — The African Union demanded on Wednesday that those responsible for the killing and abduction of several of its peacekeepers in Sudan’s troubled western Darfur region be brought to justice.

“The AU has requested the parties responsible for the atrocities committed against AMIS (AU Mission in Sudan) personnel to hand over the perpetrators to be brought to justice for the crimes they have perpetrated,” said spokesman Noureddine Mezni.

Rebels in Darfur killed two Nigerian AU troops and two contractors on Saturday and kidnapped 38 other peacekeepers on Sunday. All were released a day later.

The pan-African body pinned the blame for the kidnapping on a dissident faction of Darfur’s rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).

A JEM official said that the man responsible for the abductions — Mohammed Saleh — had been expelled from the movement and was being tracked down.

The AU separately accused the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), the armed wing of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), for the killings.

But SLM president Abdul Wahid Mohammed Ahmed Elnour said neither his forces, nor a rival faction were behind the killings and suggested that Sudanese government forces were to blame.

It was the first time the AU has suffered fatalities in the conflict-torn Sudanese region where it has some 6,600 troops monitoring a fragile ceasefire between black African rebels and government-backed Arab militias.

The latest killings occurred as the warring parties entered a new round of peace talks in the Nigerian capital of Abuja on September 15. The AU said earlier this week that divisions within the SLM were holding up progress.

The security situation in Darfur sharply worsened last month after rebels seized two government-held towns and Arab militias loyal to Khartoum raided camps for displaced persons in the region.

An estimated 180,000 to 300,000 people have died in Darfur since the civil conflict erupted in February 2003, with some 2.6 million civilians left homeless.

(AFP/ST)