UNITED NATIONS/SUDAN: Sudanese President dismisses Darfur criticism by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan

Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Beshir on Friday (December 8) dismissed criticism by the UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, saying the UN was making unreasonable demands and turning a blind eye to the activities of Darfur rebels. Annan said on Thursday (December 7) that the Sudanese government might have to be brought to account for failing to protect the people of the war-ravaged western region from killings, rape and destruction. Annan has been trying without success to persuade Bashir to accept a "hybrid" UN-African Union peace force in Darfur, where tens of thousands of people have been killed and 2.5 million people driven from their homes since early 2003. Annan repeated his criticism of the Sudanese situation on Friday. Addressing an audience in New York, Annan said the International community had stood by and let the situation in Darfur to go on for too long. "The tragedy of Darfur has raged for over three years now and still reports pour in of villages being destroyed in the hundreds and of brutal treatment of civilians spreading into neighbouring countries. How can an International community which claims to uphold Human Rights allow this horror to continue," Annan said. But Bashir told a news conference in Khartoum on Friday after the closing session of the African, Caribbean and Pacific group of states' summit that the rebel National Redemption Front (NRF) was responsible for the recent trouble in Darfur. "The activities of the National Redemption Front are to blame for the ongoing security problems in Darfur," Beshir said. The front brings together Darfur rebel groups which rejected the agreement, signed in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, by the government and only one major rebel faction. The violence in Darfur has worsened despite a partial peace agreement signed in May. Darfur rebels took up arms in 2003 to demand a greater share of power for the region. Khartoum armed mainly Arab Janjaweed militias to put down the revolt, which exacerbated the conflict. The Janjaweed are accused of a campaign of rape, murder and pillage, which Washington calls genocide. Khartoum denies genocide but the International Criminal Court is investigating alleged war crimes in the region. The Sudanese government is under United States-led pressure to accept a UN force in Darfur, which Washington says is essential to stop the violence that has killed an estimated 200,000 people and forced millions to flee their homes. Khartoum rejects the move as an attempt to restore colonial rule, but has welcomed the world body's logistical and financial support to the ill-equipped 7,000-strong AU force, which has failed to stop the violence. Beshir also commented on the UN Security Council that endorsed the deployment of African troops in Somalia. "We reject the deployment of forces in Somalia on the same basis that we rejected the deployment of foreign forces in Darfur," he said. The Security Council on Wednesday (December 6) endorsed African peacekeepers to help prop up the interim government in chaotic Somalia, but also urged the authorities to pursue peace talks with their Islamist rivals. It said Somalia's transitional federal government offered the only route to achieving peace and stability in the country, which has been without an effective central government since 1991. Tensions have risen in Somalia since June when Islamists took over the capital Mogadishu from US-backed warlords and moved on to seize territory from the interim authorities now isolated in the small southern town of Baidoa. Washington says they are harbouring al Qaeda operatives who threaten the region and elsewhere.

ITN Source | December 9, 2006

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