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Sudan Rejects UN Resolution on Darfur Peacekeeping
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?r=279&ctl=13C5168:A6F02AD83191E1609AC350B9394AF8369574F7DCC14957C0 Vice President Ali
Osman Taha says Sudan has 'options and plans' to confront what he
calls the international intervention The Sudanese government has
expressed its strong opposition to Thursday's United Nations' Security
Council resolution that calls for a U.N. peacekeeping force in the
volatile Darfur region. Cathy Majtenyi reports for VOA from Nairobi.









Click for Interactive Sudan-Darfur MapSudanese Vice President Ali
Osman Taha was among top government officials reported by the state
news agency SUNA Friday as opposing the U.N. force. He was quoted as
saying Sudan has "options and plans" to confront what he calls the
international intervention.

In reports Thursday and Friday, other members of the ruling National
Congress party blasted the resolution, saying that Security Council
members were split over what the Sudanese government terms a hasty
vote.

On Thursday, the U.N. Security Council approved the deployment of
20,000 U.N. military and police personnel to take over from an African
Union force in Darfur, which has seen an escalation of violence and
chaos in recent months. But the troops would not deploy without
Sudan's consent.

Welcoming the resolution are members of the Sudan Liberation Movement,
one of several rebel groups operating in Darfur.







The Darfur region of SudanStephen Missa Dhunya is a former member of
Parliament, who is now supervisor of a disarmament project in Sudan.
He says he supports the presence of a U.N. peacekeeping force, if it
will help end the suffering of people in Darfur, but says he is
doubtful that this will happen.

"We've seen U.N. forces everywhere, for example in Congo, or in
Rwanda,” said Dhunya. “They don't seem to really take an active role
in stopping whatever they were sent to stop. The U.N. forces are
there, and still there is much killing going on, so I don't know what
they are coming to do in Darfur."

An estimated 200,000 people have been killed and two million displaced
by the three-year-old conflict involving government forces, rebel
groups, and a militia called the Janjaweed that many say is backed by
the Sudanese government.

The African Union force sent in to provide security has come under
heavy criticism for being under funded, ill-equipped and having few
powers.

Earlier this year, the Sudanese government signed a peace agreement
with one of the rebel groups involved in the fighting.

The government argues that it has the capability to deal with the
Darfur crisis, and that the presence of foreign troops is tantamount
to an imperial invasion.

But aid groups, human rights officials and others argue that the U.N.
needs to step in and avert the looming humanitarian crisis.

 


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