Global Policy Forum

By Mohamed Osman

Sudan's president vowed today never to allow U.N. peacekeepers into Darfur and said he would lead the "resistance" against any foreign force, his strongest rejection yet of the United Nations plan for halting violence in the war-torn region. Omar al-Bashir's comments were likely to escalate tensions with the United Nations, coming as a joint U.N. and African Union team was in Sudan to plan for deployment of a possible peacekeeping force.

"This shall never take place," al-Bashir said at a news conference alongside South African President Thabo Mbeki. "These are colonial forces and we will not accept colonial forces coming into the country. They want to colonize Africa, starting with the first sub-Saharan country to gain its independence. If they want to start colonization in Africa, let them chose a different place."

U.N. officials want to send a beefed-up peacekeeping force to replace 7,000 African Union soldiers that have largely been unable to stop the fighting in Darfur. After Sudan's government signed a peace agreement with the main Darfur rebel group May 5, it gave some indications it might allow a U.N. force. But al-Bashir's government has since backtracked and today's comments were the president's most direct rejection.

Nearly 200,000 people have been killed and more than 2 million displaced in Darfur since rebel groups made up of ethnic Africans rose up against the Arab-led Khartoum government in early 2003. The government is accused of responding by unleashing Arab militias known as the Janjaweed who have been accused of some of the worst atrocities, but it denies any involvement.

Last month, the U.N. Security Council gave Khartoum a week to accept the U.N. peacekeepers, though it put off the deadline to allow for further diplomatic efforts. A high-level Security Council delegation returned last week from a tour of the region. The assessment team currently in Sudan is led by the top U.N. peacekeeping official, Undersecretary-General Jean-Marie Guehenno. In response to al-Bashir's comments, he plans to meet with the president and hold a news conference before returning to New York, where he will report to the Security Council. "There is a lot of momentum in this process going on now," U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe said. "Let's wait until Guehenno's team comes back and see what he has to say."

But al-Bashir has toughened his rhetoric. Late Monday, he denounced any foreign deployment in Darfur while speaking to his ruling National Congress party. He said he would lead "the resistance against foreign international military intervention if it ever takes place in Darfur," the state news agency SUNA reported Tuesday.

Sudan has argued that the Darfur conflict is an African problem that should be handled by troops from the continent. In his comments today, al-Bashir said that instead of sending U.N. peacekeepers, the United Nations should increase funding for the African Union forces and improve its capabilities. The AU force has been severely hampered by a lack of manpower, equipment and funding.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has repeatedly urged Sudan to accept the U.N. force. Sudan has allowed U.N. peacekeepers into southern Sudan to monitor a separate peace deal there. Guehenno's staff is still a long way from choosing the troops that would go to Sudan, but officials have studied the possibility of sending only soldiers from African or Muslim countries to avoid the impression that they are colonizers.

It is considered highly unlikely that Britain, Sudan's former colonial master, or any other major power would send troops. The soldiers would probably come from the main U.N. troop contributing countries, which include Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Nigeria and Ghana.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C íŸ 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.