Sudan’s Bashir says US, UK conspiring against his country
Aug 29, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan’s president accused the United States and Britain Tuesday of conspiring against his country as diplomats at the United Nations said Washington and ally London want the Security Council to adopt a resolution in two days giving the U.N. authority over peacekeepers in Darfur.
President Omar al-Bashir staunchly opposes the deployment of U.N. peacekeeping troops in the remote, western region to replace an African Union-led force there now.
“Everybody knows the Americans and British are scheming against the Sudan,” al-Bashir said at a rally to muster support for his opposition to the proposed deployment.
“We shall not be the first country to be recolonized in Africa. … We are free and shall not be enslaved,” al-Bashir told about 2,000 workers belonging to a federation of unions.
Al-Bashir spoke less than an hour before a visiting U.S. envoy delivered a written message to him from President Bush calling for better relations between the two countries and urging the Sudanese president to accept U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur, al-Bashir’s spokesman Mahjud Fadul Bedry said.
More than 200,000 people have died in Darfur since 2003 when ethnic African tribes revolted against the Arab-led Khartoum government. Sudan’s government is accused of unleashing Arab militiamen known as janjaweed who have been blamed for widespread atrocities.
On Monday, U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland told the Security Council that since a May peace agreement was reached by the Sudanese government and one of the region’s major rebel groups, violence, sexual abuse and displacement has increased dramatically. He cited a report that more than 200 women and girls in one camp have been sexually assaulted in less than two months.
The U.S. and Britain planned to introduce a draft Tuesday spelling out the transfer of authority over the peacekeepers from financially strapped African Union troops, whose mandate in the region ends Sept. 30, to the U.N. The switch is meant to inject more funding and troops into a force that has been unable to stop the humanitarian catastrophe in Darfur.
The Security Council planned to meet Wednesday to discuss the British and American draft. If no one objects, the resolution could be adopted Thursday.
U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said the council does not need Sudan’s acceptance to pass the resolution. The document would allow the Security Council to carry out much of the planning and logistical work for a U.N. handover even as diplomacy continues to win over al-Bashir.
One stumbling block to a quick adoption has been China, which wants to make sure that the troops would not come under U.N. command without Sudan’s consent.
Al-Bashir has proposed sending Sudanese troops to the region instead – a step human rights groups fear could lead to more rights violations. He offered Tuesday to let the U.N. assist the African Union force.
“The Americans and the British are not seeking peace but war,” he said.
Visiting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer met al-Bashir Tuesday and delivered the message from Bush. Al-Bashir said he would reply in writing but reiterated his opposition to U.N. troops, his spokesman said.
The State Department said Tuesday that al-Bashir would send an envoy to Washington to discuss allowing the U.N. to take control of the troops in Darfur. The request was delivered during the meeting between al-Bashir and Frazer.
The two also discussed the case of imprisoned Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist Paul Salopek, arrested in Darfur on Aug. 6 and accused of spying. Bedry said al-Bashir would consider the case from “a humanitarian standpoint.”
Salopek, who was in Sudan on assignment for National Geographic magazine, his driver and interpreter were arrested by pro-government forces. He was charged Saturday with espionage, passing information illegally, writing “false news” and entering the African country without a visa.
(AP/ST)