Sudanese protest UN takeover in Darfur
Mar 8, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Tens of thousands of Sudanese on Wednesday rallied against proposed plans to deploy UN forces in Darfur to replace an African Union (AU) force in the war-torn region of western Sudan.
Protesters chanted and held up banners blasting the United Nations and Washington as the crowd marched toward UN offices in Khartoum, but they were halted by hundreds of anti-riot police cordoning off the street leading to the UN bureau.
However, police allowed a small group led by rally organisers to enter the UN offices where they handed a memorandum addressed to the Security Council rejecting the dispatch of any foreign forces under the UN umbrella.
“In the name of the Sudanese people we voice opposition to any UN-led foreign intervention of any nationality in Darfur,” read the memorandum by march organisers, the Popular Organisation for Defending the Faith and the Homeland (PODFH).
The group also demanded the “withdrawal and immediate deportation” of UN envoy Jan Pronk and accused UN chief Kofi Annan of being “party to the rebellion” and making “anti-Sudanese statements which incited hatred among the Sudanese people”.
The AU’s Peace and Security Council, which in January agreed in principle to wind up the cash-strapped mission and to hand it over to the United Nations, is due to meet in Addis Ababa on Friday to discuss proposals to transfer responsibility for the Darfur force to the United Nations.
The African Union’s 7,000-strong force has been plagued by a lack of resources since it was deployed in 2004.
The United States supports the deployment to Darfur of a UN peacekeeping force.
However, the Sudanese government opposes such a move, saying that deploying a UN force in the region risks worsening the conflict and eroding the AU’s mandate to intervene in other trouble spots in the continent.
Sudanese President Omar el-Beshir has said that any foreign forces would be sent without Khartoum’s approval, warning that Darfur would be a “cemetery” for foreign troops.
After talks in neighbouring Libya, US Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer explained Wednesday that Washington was seeking a “partnership” between the AU and United Nations in resolving the Darfur conflict.
The AU forces would form the basis of the peacekeeping operation, she told a press conference, while the United Nations would provide logistical and financial support.
Her comments marked an apparent shift from the previous US stand of the United Nations replacing the AU forces.
The Darfur conflict, which broke out in February 2003, pits rebel groups campaigning for a greater share of power and resources in Sudan against the Khartoum government and its allied militias.
Fighting and the humanitarian crisis in the region has claimed between 180,000 and 300,000 lives, and displaced more than two million people.
(ST/AFP)