Sudan rejects US Rice state warning on Darfur UN forces
Sept 28, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan has vigorously rejected the statement of the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, in which she called on Khartoum to choose either the acceptance of United Nations forces for Darfur or to get ready for confrontation with the international community.
The State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ali Karti, refused Rice’s statement, indicating that the method of Rice was not coping with the way of dealing between states. While the Presidential Advisor Majzoub al-Khalifa said that Rice’s statement “was not in conformity with the international law and an attempt to declare war against a sovereign country and member of the United Nations”
“We are not going to sit by and watch this kind of death and destruction continue and we will use whatever tools are necessary, through the U.N., to be able to stop that” Rice told the Africa Society in a speech on Wednesday 27 September.
Karti said that Washington is attempting to weaken Sudan stance of rejection to the resolution 1706, and also exercising pressure on the African Union so as to abandon its mission in Darfur.
The minister said that the recent decision of the African Peace and Security Council on extension of the African forces mandate in Darfur till the end of the current year was a blow against the American endeavours.
Last month, the United Nations agreed to a 20,000-strong peacekeeping force for Darfur to augment African troops already there, but Khartoum insists it will not allow them in, equating such a mission to “colonialism.”
The African Union force, whose mandate was extended last week until the end of this year, has been unable to stop the violence that has driven 2.5 million people from their homes and killed an estimated 200,000 since 2003.
Fighting between government-backed Janjaweed militias and Darfur rebels in Darfur has left more than 200,000 dead and 2.5 million displaced since 2003.
More than two years have passed since the U.S. government labeled the atrocities in Sudan as genocide, but the killing has accelerated in recent weeks as the Sudanese government has launched a new offensive.
(ST)