AU observers have failed people of Darfur: Sudan rebel leader

CAIRO, Feb 9 (AFP) — African Union (AU) observers monitoring a ceasefire between ethnic minority rebels and government forces in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region have failed the local population, a rebel leader charged Wednesday.

“They have failed to be observers. Their presence has had no effect on the ground,” Abdul Wahid Mohammed Ahmed al-Nur, leader of the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), told AFP by telephone from Asmara, Eritrea.

“All they have done is watch and write,” said Nur, arguing that the military observers have also failed to adequately respond to reports about attacks on civilians, often arriving “four or five days after an incident”.

The AU has about 1,700 military observers and troops on the ground in Darfur charged with monitoring a fragile ceasefire between government forces and fighters of the SLM and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).

Nur called on the UN Security Council to issue a resolution changing the mandate of the AU in Darfur from observer to a full-fledged peacekeeping mission with a larger force and broader mandate.

“I also urge African countries and others to contribute forces to protect civilians in Darfur,” the SLM leader said.

Leader of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) John Garang has proposed the deployment of a tripartite force — one-third each from the government, the SPLA and the AU — to oversee the Darfur ceasefire and end the bloodshed.

On January 9 the SPLM and Khartoum signed a peace agreement in the Kenyan capital Nairobi ending more than two decades of civil war between northern and southern Sudan.

“You really do need a robust force in order to be able to sufficiently protect the civilian population,” Garang said Monday in New York.

Nur welcomed the participation of the SPLA in such a force, but said the government, which he accused of complicity in attacks against civilians in Darfur, cannot be part of that force.

“We cannot accept that,” he said.

Since war broke out in February 2003, some 1.5 million people have been displaced, many into squalid and dangerous camps, largely as a result of attacks by government-backed Janjaweed militias.

Tens of thousands are estimated to have died, many from hunger and disease, in the past several months alone in Darfur.

A UN commission last month said pro-government forces and militias had been responsible for the killing of civilians, torture, enforced disappearances, destruction of villages, rape, pillaging and forced displacement.