Sudan Rejects U.S.-British Troop Proposal
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UNITED NATIONS — An American-British proposal to deploy 17,000 troops in Darfur was immediately rejected yesterday by Khartoum. President Bashir threatened that if the U.N.-led force reaches his country, it will be “defeated” like Israel by Hezbollah.
In a draft resolution circulated to members of the Security Council, America and Britain proposed that the new force be sent in January 2007 to the Sudanese region, where the situation, defined by Washington as “genocide,” is fast deteriorating. The proposed force would replace the 7,000 under-resourced troops the African Union deployed in 2004.
Asked if Sudan’s consent would be needed for the resolution to be adopted, the deputy American ambassador to the United States, Jackie Sanders, said, “I would say it is not required.”
But it was clear the resolution’s sponsors were looking for Khartoum’s consent.
“I hope that when we negotiate this text, there will be clarity from the government of Sudan that such an operation, favored by the African Union and favored by the Security Council, should take place,” the British ambassador to the United Nations, Emyr Jones Parry, said.
The government in Khartoum has long opposed the deployment of any outside forces other than the African Union. Sudanese officials have compared a NATO involvement to the American occupation in Iraq, and have threatened that such a deployment would lead to a strengthening of Al Qaeda in Sudan.
“We are determined to defeat any forces entering the country, just as Hezbollah has defeated the Israeli forces,” Mr. Bashir said yesterday.
“Legally speaking, the African Union” does not have “the right to transfer” the mandate in Darfur to a U.N.-led force, Sudan’s ambassador to the United Nations, Omar Bashir Manis, said. “The Sudan government is opposed to the sending of troops, and I cannot see how anyone can envisage sending troops to a country which is not welcoming those troops.”
Earlier this year the African Union’s Peace and Security Commission met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where it decided “in principal” to pass the mandate of its force to the United Nations.
“We’ve been pushing this since at least February, when we were president of the Security Council,” Ms. Sanders said. “It’s becoming more violent on the ground and the humanitarian situation is getting worse as well, so we really need to move this forward.”
