Sudan president underlines rejection of UN Darfur peacekeepers

March 28, 2007 (RIYADH) — Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir Wednesday underlined his rejection of U.N. peacekeepers in the war-torn Darfur region, saying the U.N. should only provide financial and technical help to African peacekeepers.

Al-Bashir made the comments in an opening speech to an Arab summit in the Saudi capital, attended by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is hoping to meet the Sudanese president in an attempt to convince him to accept peacekeepers.

But al-Bashir said U.N. resolutions calling for a U.N. deployment in Darfur were “a violation for Sudan’s sovereignty” and “provoke the conflict in Darfur, instead of finding a solution for it.”

“We assure you that we do not desire a confrontation with the international community, but what we are seeking is to keep the African color of the forces in Darfur according to the shape and leadership, but on condition that the U.N. will take over the financial, technical and logistic support for those forces,” he said.

Al-Bashir said the U.N. should step up efforts to negotiate a political settlement in Darfur.

Some 70,000 African Union peacekeepers have been unable to put an end to escalating violence in Darfur, where government forces and ethnic African rebels have been battling for nearly four years.

Al-Bashir’s government is accused of backing Arab janjaweed militiamen blamed for widespread atrocities against ethnic African civilians. More than 200,000 people have been killed and more than 2.5 million driven from their homes.

(AP)