Sudan renews opposition to UN force for Darfur

Feb 23, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese government Thursday renewed its opposition to a UN military intervention in Darfur and denied the African Union (AU) the right to propose replacing its own mission by UN peacekeepers.

“The national unity government and parliament are opposed to intervention of UN forces in Darfur,” Interior Minister Al-Zubair Beshir Taha said at a press briefing.

Khartoum had “drawn up plans for averting the dangers of such an intervention by launching a political and diplomatic offensive”.

“The African Union has no right to propose alternatives to its mission for the failure of its forces in carrying out their duties, like substituting them with forces from the UN,” Taha said.

He said the call for foreign intervention in Darfur was “due to the decrease of the energy supplies in the major industrial nations … and due to the increasing demand in those nations for petroleum which is abundant in Darfur”.

President George W. Bush and other US officials have pushed for a UN move to strengthen the beleaguered AU force in Darfur, where up to 300,000 people have died over three years of what Washington calls genocide.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week said the process was being held up by the lack of a formal request for help from the AU, which has 7,000 troops in Darfur and should form the core of the new contingent.

The Darfur conflict first erupted in February 2003 pitting ethnic minority rebels against the Khartoum government and its Arab militia allies.

(ST/AFP)