KHARTOUM, February 14 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Sudan and France roundly rejected on Sunday, February 13, a call by UN chief Kofi Annan for a NATO intervention in the troubled region of Darfur, saying that world ought to back the existing African Union observer mission.
“We believe that the African Union has the full mandate and capabilities to accomplish its mission satisfactorily and we expect that no other agency would tamper with this mission,” Sudanese junior foreign minister Naguib Al-Khair Abdel Wahab told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“We commend the work done by the African Union, which has been recognized by the UN as the major body responsible for supervising the peace efforts in Darfur, and we expect the UN secretary-general to spare no effort to bolster the AU in carrying out its assigned mission.”
The AU has about 1,800 military observers and troops on the ground in Darfur charged with monitoring a fragile ceasefire between government forces and Darfur rebels.
According to the Doha-based Aljazeera news channel the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) has reiterated support for a NATO role in the troubled region.
Addressing the annual Munich defense and security conference Sunday, Annan urged NATO and the European Union to intervene to stop violence in Darfur.
“Additional measures are urgently required - those organizations with real capacity - and NATO as well as the EU are well represented in this room, must give serious consideration to what, in practical terms, they can do to help end this tragedy.”
An African Union summit, hosted by Libya in October, concluded with a joint statement rejecting any “foreign intervention” in Darfur.
French Rejection
France echoed Sudan’s view, rejecting a NATO role in the war-torn region.
“We reject any NATO intervention in Africa,” a French source attending the Munich conference, told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The United States pressed anew last month for imposing United Nations sanctions on Sudan, reiterating that Khartoum was committing “genocide” in troubled Darfur.
A UN report refuted earlier in the month US claims of genocide being perpetrated in Darfur.
“The conclusion that no genocidal policy has been pursued and implemented in Darfur by the government authorities, directly or through the militias under their control, should not be taken in any way as detracting from the gravity of the crimes perpetrated in the region,” the report said.
Immediately after the UN report, Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas and Representative Frank Wolf of Virginia asked Annan to take action on alleged human rights violations in Darfur or tender his resignation.
International aid workers had told Britain’s The Observer newspaper that the US administration was making too much fuss about the humanitarian crisis in Darfur as it tirelessly sought a regime change in Khartoum.
The Darfur conflict erupted in April 2003 when the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) took up arms against the Khartoum government.
The United Nations said the conflict is causing the world’s worst humanitarian crisis at present.
An estimated 670,000 people have fled their homes since the beginning of the conflict while 110,000 others reportedly sought refuge in neighboring Chad.