Sudan: We want more AU troops

2004-09-09 11:08

Khartoum - Sudan has asked for more African Union monitors to oversee a truce in strife-torn Darfur, but accused the European Union of doing too little to help civilians suffering in the country's troubled region where a bloody conflict has raged for 19 months.

Sudan's approaches to the African and European blocs came as a United States drafted resolution circulated among United Nations Security Council members on Wednesday threatening punitive action against Sudan's government, singling out the country's lucrative oil exports if Khartoum doesn't end violence in the country's three Darfur states.

A UN spokesperson, however, provided little positive news for Sudanese authorities trying to prove they are curbing the violence, saying the world body is still receiving reports that fighting has recently forced thousands more African villagers from their homes.

Sudan promises to co-operate

The international community wants the Sudanese government to disarm bands of militiamen, known as the Janjaweed, who have been blamed for driving more than one million people from their homes and killing an estimated 30 000 others.

The United States accuses Khartoum's government of backing the Janjaweed, claims which this country's government rejects. Instead, authorities here say they have been upping efforts to end the violence and provide humanitarian relief to civilians in the region.

In Tokyo, Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said on Wednesday that he has called on the African Union to send more observers to monitor a rarely adhered April 8 ceasefire between Sudanese authorities and rebels.

"Whatever the African Union will suggest, we will adopt it and we will work on it," Ismail said without elaborating.

The AU has about 80 military observers in Darfur, protected by just over 300 soldiers. The United Nations wants Sudan to allow more than 3 000 troops in the region to help enforce the shaky truce.

The latest US-proposed draft Security Council resolution, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, says the Sudanese government "has failed fully to comply with its (UN) commitments" to rein in the Janjaweed and provide security for those who fled their homes.

UN spokeswoman Radhia Achouri said the world body "was very concerned about reports of increased fighting.

Fighting broke last week around the Zam Zam area where the government accuses Darfur rebels of attacking police camps and killing two policemen and injuring 17 others.

- AP