EU renews support for Sudan peace mission
Sept 4, 2006 (BRUSSELS) — The European Commission stressed Monday the importance of a peacekeeping mission in Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur region after Khartoum demanded that an African Union deployment leave the country.
“We expect the Sudanese authorities to understand that this mission is important, that this mission will encourage people to come back and start their lives,” said the commission’s spokesman on humanitarian affairs.
The conflict in Darfur, an arid desert region the size of France, between rebels and militias backed by Sudanese troops has left some 300,000 people dead and displaced more than two million others since 2003.
African Union (AU) countries sent troops there in 2004 — the force numbers around 7,000 personnel — but the cash-strapped mission has struggled to contain the violence and is due to be replaced by a United Nations deployment.
Earlier Monday, the government in Khartoum asked the AU peacekeepers to leave Darfur by the end of the month, as new fighting threatened to plunge the region into fresh chaos.
“The African Union has already stated that it could not continue in Darfur so, if it is unable to pursue its assignment beyond September 30, then they have to leave before this date,” foreign ministry spokesman Jamal Ibrahim said.
“At the same time, they have no right to transfer this assignment to the United Nations or any other party,” he told AFP.
Sudan rejected last week a UN Security Council resolution on the deployment of more than 20,000 UN peacekeepers to take over from the embattled AU force.
“The humanitarian situation is deteriorating,” warned the EU commission spokesman, Amadeu Altafaj Tardio.
“It is clear that the peace agreement … has to be reinforced and people have to trust the authorities and the peace mission on the ground if they want to come back home and start their lives,” he said.
“We continue to have a dialogue with the Sudanese authorities on these issues. We hope the dialogue will be productive,” he said.
Khartoum has submitted plans to the UN for the deployment of its own troops to replace AU monitors, but the idea has been rejected by the United States and angered rebel movements.
(AFP/ST)