Sudan curfew hinders AU force peace mission in Darfur

Feb 21, 2006 (EL-FASHER) — Sudan is hindering an African Union peace mission’s ability to monitor a tentative truce in the Darfur region by imposing a curfew and restricting airport access, the head of the mission said on Tuesday.

“Of course with the curfew, the airport shut, there are some constraints because if we cannot move about in that hour we cannot know what the government is doing in that hour,” said Collins Ihekire, head of the AU military mission in Darfur.

Tens of thousands have been killed and more than 2 million herded into camps during more than three years of fighting in Darfur. Non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing Khartoum of neglect.

The United Nations says Khartoum responded by arming Arab militias, who are accused of a widespread campaign of rape, looting and killing, which Washington calls genocide. Sudan denies the charge.

Some 7,000 underfunded AU monitors and troops are in Darfur to monitor a shaky ceasefire and the United States says the twice the number is needed to ensure peace and has urged Sudan to accept United Nations peacekeepers.

Visiting British International Development Minister Hilary Benn, pledged another £20 million to support the African Union force in Darfur.

Ihekire said the government had been flying helicopters offensively, a breach of the ceasefire signed in April 2004, which has since been widely ignored. Last week rebels shot down a government helicopter in South Darfur and captured a pilot alive and are still holding him.

“Those were helicopter gunships supporting their troops fighting with the SLA (Sudan Liberation Army) … offensive flying,” he added of the two helicopters the government used in the attack.

The government has imposed a curfew in el-Fasher from 2100 until 0630, U.N. officials said. The AU also says the airport in el-Fasher, the force headquarters, is closed from 1800.

Benn urged the local state governor to lift the curfew. “I can see no justification for imposing a curfew on peacekeepers,” he said.

A state minister, Adam Haribush, told Benn that rebels were seeping into the town at night and it was impossible to differentiate the AU forces from rebel troops.

“The rebels are even within the AU base and are taking their cars to go around the town at night,” he declared in Arabic, but which the government translator did not repeat in English.

The AU’s Ihekire told Benn the Sudanese army was also using white helicopters and vehicles, the same colour used by the AU peace monitoring force and aid agencies working in the vast region, which compromised their neutrality.

(Reuters)