Stop bombing North Darfur villages – SLM-Minawi
Sept 7, 2006 (AL-FASHER) – Former rebels who signed a peace agreement with the government in May have denounced the new Sudanese military offensive to flush out rebel groups in North Darfur State.
“The government’s own security plan for the north is motivated by hidden agendas,” Col. Ali Muktar, representative of Minni Minnawi’s faction of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A) on the African Union (AU) ceasefire commission, told IRIN on Thursday. “We do not support this plan and we do not participate in this plan.
“We urge the AU and the United Nations to urge the government to stop these military operations,” he added.
The international advocacy organisation Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Wednesday said the Sudanese government was indiscriminately bombing civilian-occupied villages in rebel-held areas.
Large swathes of territory in North Darfur are under the control of the National Redemption Front (NRF), a new alliance of rebels who did not sign the 5 May Darfur Peace Agreement between the government and Minnawi faction.
“Government forces are bombing villages with blatant disregard for civilian lives,” said Peter Takirambudde, HRW’s Africa director.
Local observers confirmed that the offensive started on 28 August when the villages of Abu Sakin, Kulkul, Sayah and Turra, approximately 35 km northwest of the capital El Fasher were attacked from the air by Antonov planes. Subsequently, Sudanese armed forces took over the area and pushed further northwards, recapturing Um Sidir on 31 August.
Although NRF rebels initially avoided a direct confrontation with the advancing government forces, they started to counter-attack after the loss of Um Sidir. Insecurity has been rampant since.
On Friday, Sam Ibok, the director of the AU Peace and Security Council, said 20 civilians had been killed and more than 1,000 displaced as a result of the offensive. International observers in North Darfur reported that civilians attempting to flee the Kulkul area in the direction of El Fasher were turned back by government troops.
AU peacekeepers under pressure
Khartoum is threatening to eject AU peacekeepers; their mandate is due to expire on 30 September and the Sudanese government has refused to accept an extension of the AU Mission in Sudan (AMIS) mandate as a transition to a UN peacekeeping force in Darfur.
“The government is not against the African troops in Darfur but it is against the African troops becoming an advance for the international forces,” the Presidential Adviser, Mustafa Osman Ismail, told reporters in Khartoum.
Last week, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution that calls for a gradual transition from the under-funded and under-equipped AU mission in Darfur to a stronger UN protection force.
But the deployment of the UN force of 17,500 troops and 3,300 civilian police is contingent on consent from Sudan, which has so far rejected such a move. Instead, it has proposed its own protection plan, which involves deploying another 10,500 troops to “consolidate the security situation”. Military cargo planes are arriving every night in El Fasher, the state capital, to bring in reinforcements.
On Monday, the AU announced it would allow its mandate to expire and leave the region by the end of September, though it left open the possibility of an extension. The AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) will convene in New York on 18 September to take a decision.
On Thursday, AU chief Baba Gana Kingibe told IRIN in El Fasher that he was optimistic a solution would be found. “What brought the AU to deploy in Darfur was the sentiment of solidarity with the people of Darfur and the PSC will be conscious of that sentiment when they take a decision about the future of AMIS,” he said.
“They will weigh all this up – the fate of the people of Darfur is paramount,” he added.
(IRIN)