Sudan militia rallies against UN troops for Darfur
Sept 16, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — More than 1,000 volunteer fighters from Sudan’s Popular Defence Forces rallied in Khartoum on Saturday vowing to treat any U.N. force in Darfur as an invading army that would be in a state of war with Sudan.
The volunteers, from Sudan’s official PDF militia, danced to nationalistic folk music and chanted “God is Greatest”. Some wore masks over their faces, while others wore military-style fatigues.
“We consider any army that enters Sudan as an invading army, even if the order was from the United Nations,” Ahmed Bilal Osman, a presidential adviser, told the crowd of PDF volunteers.
“Any country that takes part in this invasion force will enter into a state of war with Sudan.”
The rally was the latest challenge to international calls for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to accept a U.N. resolution to deploy more than 20,000 U.N. peacekeeping troops in Darfur, where political and ethnic violence has flared since 2003.
Western leaders, some African presidents, and humanitarian groups say this is the only way to avert a humanitarian catastrophe in the west Sudanese region where tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than 2 million displaced by fighting between government troops, rebels and militias.
Bashir has repeatedly said he would not allow U.N. troops in Darfur, likening them to a new form of colonialism.
“We say to any Western country that comes to Sudan that this will be its graveyard,” said Abdullah Mohammed Ali, a 30-year-old PDF volunteer dressed in a green uniform.
“We can solve our problems by ourselves, and we think any intervention is to control Sudan. We will defend against it.”
NOT A “REGULAR WAR”
Rebels have accused the PDF, a paramilitary force used to reinforce the armed forces during times of war, of being behind some atrocities in Darfur. The Sudanese army denies they are involved in any wrong-doing.
The PDF volunteers, who came to the rally at the Popular Defence Forces Khartoum headquarters unarmed, included veiled women and older men, and organisers said some had travelled from across the country to attend the rally in the Sudanese capital.
Some at the rally waved Islamic prayer beads in their hands as they danced in the courtyard of the Popular Defence Forces Khartoum headquarters. Others waved ‘V’ for victory signs and chanted: “March, march, Bashir”.
“This battle that they will open upon us, they shouldn’t think that we will greet it in a regular war, or that we will wait for them to take up positions or entrench themselves,” said Kamal al-Din Ibrahim, general coordinator of the PDF.
“We will determine the place of the war. We will determine the timing of the war,” he said.
The mandate for 7,000 poorly equipped African Union peace monitoring force expires on Sept. 30 and Sudan has said they would only be allowed to extend the mission if they remain under AU control.
“We are prepared for any foreign force that enters Sudan,” said Ahmed Aboul Qassem, a PDF volunteer at the rally. “We have more than one million ready and trained in all weaponry, even swords and knives.”
(Reuters)