Egypt, Libya leaders reject UN Darfur force

Feb 28, 2006 (MISRATA, Libya) — Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi rejected the replacement of an African Union force in the Sudanese region of Darfur by UN peackeepers, the Egyptian ambassador to Libya said.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi rejected the replacement of an African Union force in the Sudanese region of Darfur by UN peackeepers, the Egyptian ambassador to Libya said.

The two leaders “stressed the importance of the African force’s presence in Darfur without any outside intervention,” Mohammad Rafaat al-Tahtawi told reporters after talks in the Libyan town of Misrata.

The meeting came ahead of a session of the AU Peace and Security Council in Addis Ababa on March 10 which is expected to discuss proposals to transfer responsibility for the Darfur force to the United Nations.

The AU has said it has no funds to operate beyond March and is considering a handover of its Darfur mission to the United Nations.

The UN Security Council in February approved contingency planning for UN peacekeepers to take over from the AU force but, despite strong pressure from Western governments, Khartoum has so far remained implacably hostile to the deployment of UN troops there.

This weekend, President Omar al-Beshir warned Darfur would become a “graveyard” for any foreign military contingent entering the region against Khartoum’s will.

Up to 300,000 people are estimated to have died since the conflict erupted in February 2003, pitting ethnic minority rebels against the Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum and its militia allies.

Some 2.4 million people have fled their homes.

(AFP/ST)