Sudanese First VP supports UN troops in Darfur
Sept 15, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — One of Sudan’s two vice presidents, who heads a former rebel group sharing power in Khartoum, said in remarks published Saturday that he would accept the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region.
The head of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement, First Vice President Salva Kiir Mayardit, told the independent Al-Sudani daily that the Sudanese government was incapable of protecting civilians in Darfur, and called on the U.N. to intervene.
“The aggravation of the humanitarian and security situation in Darfur necessitates intervention of international forces to protect civilians from the atrocities of the Janjaweed militias so long as the government is not capable of protecting them,” Kiir was quoted as saying at the close of an SPLM politburo meeting held in the southern city of Juba late Friday.
Kiir’s group signed a peace agreement with the Sudanese government in January 2005, laying down its arms after 21 years of civil war — Africa’s longest war.
Some see that peace deal as a model for resolving the Darfur conflict. Kiir’s organization is believed to have influence over the Darfur rebels, though the conflicts were not related.
On Tuesday the U.N.’s humanitarian chief said it was vital that a U.N. peacekeeping force be allowed into the western Sudan region of Darfur to improve the security situation.
Sudan has long resisted the plan for a U.N. force. A 7,000-strong African Union force now in the region is understaffed, starved of cash and eager to hand over to the U.N. Its mandate expires at the end of the month.
“Indeed, in many ways we are in a freefall in Darfur at the moment,” U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland told reporters in Kenya at the end of an eight-day visit to Congo, Uganda and southern Sudan.
He said if insecurity forces aid agencies to pull out of Darfur, a region the size of France, hundreds of thousands of people would be left with absolutely nothing.
“There is still a possibility to avoid that, but we have very little time, in my view, to avoid a collapse in Darfur,” Egeland said.
Egeland urged China as well as Arab and Islamic states to help convince the Khartoum-based government that “we need this U.N. force to avoid a collapse.”
The United Nations has been trying to persuade Sudan to allow the U.N. to take over the African Union peacekeeping force, which has been unable to stop the violence in Darfur.
But Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir repeatedly has rejected the proposal, and has warned that his army would fight any U.N. forces sent to Darfur.
On Monday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said 1.9 million people have been displaced from Darfur. More than 200,000 people have died from war and starvation.
Annan demanded that the Sudanese government halt an offensive launched August 28 to flush out rebel strongholds in Darfur, warning that it would suffer “opprobrium and disgrace” if it does not.
The World Food Program said Monday that violence has prevented food aid from reaching some 355,000 people in northern Darfur for the past three months, and expressed fears the humanitarian situation could worsen when the AU force’s mandate expires.
The AU’s Peace and Security Council will meet September 18 in New York, just before this year’s General Assembly meeting, to discuss breaking the deadlock in Darfur.
Sudan has said it would expel the African Union peacekeepers if they insist on transferring their mission to the United Nations after an AU mandate expires at the end of the month.
(AP/ST)