Sudanese students demonstrate, reject UN troops to Darfur
Mar 7, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — About 200 Sudanese students demonstrated on Tuesday urging the United Nations to leave their country and calling it a colonial force, days ahead of a decision to deploy U.N. troops to the violent Darfur region.
Tuesday’s protest outside the U.S. embassy in Khartoum followed unconfirmed reports in a pro-government newspaper of new Islamist groups threatening U.N. and U.S. interests in Sudan, and rejecting the presence of any U.N. soldiers in Darfur.
“This is our message to you Jan Pronk: Get out of our country, leave immediately,” head of the Sudanese students union, Mohamed Abdallah Sheikh Idriss, told the chanting crowd. Pronk is the top U.N. envoy in Sudan.
One boy held a picture of Pronk with a knife and blood dripping from the blade, warning: “Be prepared.”
Pronk defended the U.N.’s role in Sudan, saying the body had not asked to deploy troops in Darfur, and that it would only intervene if asked to do so by the African Union. He also said the U.N. should not be confused with the U.S.
“Quite a number of people in Sudan are mixing up United Nations with has happened in other countries, like Iraq and Afghanistan,” Pronk told Reuters during a visit to Cairo.
“There is no intervention. There is no colonial approach. The U.N. is not the U.S., they (the protestors) should understand that … The United Nations is a safeguard against intervention,” he said.
About 7,000 African Union troops are monitoring a shaky ceasefire in Sudan’s west where 2 million people have been driven from their homes by a campaign of rape, killing and looting, called genocide by Washington.
Khartoum denies genocide, but the International Criminal Court is investigating alleged war crimes in the remote region bordering Chad. On Friday African foreign ministers are expected to request the United Nations take over their force in Darfur.
But Sudan rejects U.N. forces in the region, and has warned Pronk that al Qaeda militants may target troops if they enter the country, especially if they include U.S. soldiers.
The newly established al-Intibaha newspaper last week announced a new Islamist movement against foreign intervention in Darfur, called the Darfur Jihad Organisation.
“The group vows to fight any foreign intervention in Darfur through all legitimate religious means,” a statement received by the paper said.
On Monday the paper reported the formation of another group, the “Blood Brigades,” which it said offered a reward of $40,000 for anyone who killed the U.S. charge d’affaires in Khartoum.
Last week a Sudanese Islamist paper quoted anonymous businessmen saying the U.S. charge Cameron Hume had insulted the Prophet Mohammad. The U.S. embassy denied the statement.
But Tuesday’s demonstration was held outside the U.S. embassy because, demonstrators said, Hume had insulted Islam.
“The U.S. embassy is proof of occupation and colonisation of our country,” said Ahmed Malik of the Muslim Brotherhood in Sudan. “They (the United States) have declared a war against Muslims”.
(Reuters)