No peacekeepers to Darfur without Sudan’s approval – AU

Sept 25, 2006 (CARACAS) — Peacekeeping troops should not be sent to Sudan’s troubled Darfur region without the Sudanese government’s approval, the president of the African Union said Monday.

Sudan’s government has faced international pressure to allow a U.N. peacekeeping force to enter the Darfur region, where ethnic fighting has killed at least 200,000 people and chased 2.5 million from their homes since 2003.

“No soldier should go to Sudan without the permission of the Sudanese government because it’s not about making war with the Sudanese people but helping them,” AU head Alpha Oumar Konare told the Caracas-based television station Telesur during a visit to Venezuela.

The current AU peacekeeping force was scheduled to be replaced by a larger U.N. force this month, but Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir opposes U.N. intervention in the Darfur region and the AU has announced it will stay on until at least the end of the year.

Konare’s comments came as al-Bashir, in Sudan, lashed out at the U.S., saying Washington’s plans to create a “new Middle East” were behind an international push to replace AU peacekeepers with U.N. forces in Darfur.

“They want to use the Darfur issue to re-colonize Sudan,” said al-Bashir, who accused the United States and Britain of wanting to reshape the region in Israel’s interests.

Some rebel leaders warn that the Sudanese government is reinforcing the Janjaweed, a pro-government militia of Arab tribesmen that has been blamed for much of the atrocities against ethnic African villagers in Darfur. The Sudanese government denies those allegations and has pledged to disarm the Janjaweed.

(AP/ST)