UN resolution on Sudan 'wicked'

2006-08-21 09:20

Khartoum - Sudan's justice minister on Sunday described a US-British draft resolution which would transfer peacekeeping in the Darfur region from the African Union to a UN force as "wicked and misleading".

"The British draft resolution that will be presented to the UN security council is full of wicked and misleading elements," justice minister Mohamed Ali al-Madhi told reporters in Khartoum.

"The draft resolution provides for deploying UN forces under chapter seven on grounds that the Sudan threatens the international peace and security without producing any argument supporting this allegation," he said.

He said the draft grants the UN forces the power of using all forms of military force, "thus literally making of them forces of occupation".

Backing from Arab League

The Arab League on Sunday backed Sudan's refusal of a UN peacekeeping force in the war-wracked Darfur region where a peace deal has failed to quell years of bloodshed, diplomats said.

A league committee called for a reinforcement of the African Union mission already on the ground in the western Sudanese region.

The AU has a 7 000-strong force in Darfur, but it has struggled to monitor truce violations in a region the size of France and is under pressure to hand over to the United Nations.

Sudan will confront UN forces

But Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir warned last week that his government would confront any UN-sponsored forces sent to Darfur.

An estimated 300 000 people have died and 2.4 million more fled their homes since the ethnic minority rebels rose up against the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum in early 2003.

The main faction of the Sudan Liberation Movement signed a peace agreement with the Khartoum government in May but other factions refused to sign up.

- AFP