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UN forces 'not needed in Darfur'
10/01/2007 12:19 - (SA)
Khartoum - Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir says that African Union forces can maintain order in Darfur and the United Nations forces are not needed.
Al-Bashir said: "Our experience with UN operations in the world is not encouraging.
"There are sufficient forces in the Sudan from African countries to maintain order and they can provide order. All we need is funding for the African troops."
Al-Bashir's remarks showed that his government had backtracked on its word last month after Sudanese officials said Khartoum would implement the plan for a UN deployment in Darfur announced by outgoing Secretary-General Kofi Annan at a meeting in Addis Ababa.
More than 20 000 people had been killed and 2.5 million forced to flee their homes in nearly four years of fighting in Darfur. US President George W Bush had labeled the violence "genocide" against the region's ethnic African community.
Al-Bashir had long resisted international pressure to deploy UN peacekeepers in Darfur, saying they would be "colonialist".
- AP
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