Thousands protest against UN
2006-03-08 14:00
Khartoum - Shouting "Down, Down USA,"
thousands of Sudanese paralysed the streets of Khartoum on
Wednesday protesting against any deployment of United Nations troops to
the violent western Darfur region.
"Get out all foreigners, we don't want you here," shouted
21-year-old student Zeinab Kheir el-Sir. The marchers were
carrying banners saying "Darfur will be the grave of the
conquerors."
African foreign ministers are due to meet on Friday to
decide whether to ask the United Nations to take over control of
their 7 000-strong mission currently monitoring a shaky
ceasefire in Darfur. The AU lacks both funds and equipment.
After weeks of an intense government-led media campaign
against any foreign presence in Sudan, nationalist sentiment is
running high.
The newly established pro-government al-Intibaha newspaper
last week announced the formation of a new Islamist movement
against foreign intervention in Darfur, called the Darfur Jihad
Organisation. On Monday the paper reported the formation of
another group, the "Blood Brigades".
On Wednesday the defence minister addressed a military
demonstration in the street in central Khartoum but foreign
journalists were detained and escorted from the scene.
"Jihad, victory, martyrdom," the soldiers chanted. "Our
martyrs are in heaven, and we are ready," said Defence Minister
Abdel Rahim Mohamed Hussein.
Hussein last week threw out all foreign press from a news
conference, accusing them of fabricating the Darfur conflict,
which Washington calls genocide.
Khartoum denies any genocide in the arid west, but tens of
thousands have been killed and two million herded into camps by a
three-year campaign of rape, looting and killing.
The International Criminal Court is investigating alleged
war crimes there.
Among the crowd of demonstrators, one brave woman quietly
said she was there to support intervention in her place of
origin, Darfur.
"I don't think the government can solve the problem, nor can
the African Union," student Maha Mekki said. "I want America to
come in," she said, before being drowned out by shouts of "no,
no to foreigners".
The United Nations is currently deploying about 10 000
troops to Sudan's south to monitor the implementation of a
separate peace deal signed last year to end more than two
decades of civil war there.
But the government and opposition parties have all said they
do not want that UN force to extend to Darfur as well.
"In the south they are there to help, but in Darfur this
will just be a front for Israel and America to come in to get
our oil," said demonstrator Amal Jaafar.
Sudan produces roughly 330 000 barrels per day of crude,
mostly from fields in the south.
UN sources say any UN force in Sudan's west is likely to
keep the same African Union forces on the ground, but change the command
over to a UN peacekeeping mission.