Yesterday the African Union's Peace and Security Council moved closer to sending an AU peacekeeping force into Darfur Sudan. Here is the story, reported from Kenya today:
NAIROBI, July 28 (AFP) -- The African Union (AU) accused Sudan's pro-government militias of burning civilians alive in Darfur and sent out a clear signal it was considering sending in a peacekeeping force to the crisis-hit region.The AU has said that a "full-fledged peacekeeping mission" could be sent to Darfur to force the government-backed Janjaweed militia to lay down its arms in line with a ceasefire signed in April.
The United Nations estimates 50,000 people have died in the Darfur conflict involving government forces and their Janjaweed allies against two rebel movements, the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement.
The AU's Peace and Security Council on Tuesday asked the body's chairman to prepare "a comprehensive plan on how best to enhance the effectiveness of the AU mission on the ground."
"This includes the possibility of transforming the said mission into a full-fledged peacekeeping mission, with the requisite mandate and size to ensure the effective implementation of the ceasefire agreement," an AU statement said.
The mission will lay much emphasis on the "neutralisation of the Janjaweed militia, the protection of the civilian population and the facilitation of the delivery of humanitarian assistance."
The pan-African body is already planning to send some 300 troops to Darfur by the end of July to protect its team of observers and monitors overseeing the implementation of the ceasefire.
This statement by the AU comes on the heels of a new report by the existing AU monitors in Sudan, mentioned on this blog yesterday, documenting continued violence by government-backed militias, including the continuation of crimes that can only be called atrocities.
It will be difficult in terms of African politics for Sudan to resist such "help" coming from an organization that up to now it has relied upon to validate its claims that is is addressing the crisis. Indeed,
Mustafa Osman Ismail, Sudan's foreign minister, told the Financial Times that his government would discuss the issue with "an open mind" if the union puts forward a proposal.
This comment, while perhaps ingenuine, contrasts sharply with the defiant language the Sudanese government has used in recent days to resist US or UK-backed peacekeeping, and shows the potential authority that an AU-led force could command in Sudan and on the continent.
I am doing a research project in my english class on genocide, we were asked to pick a country and my group memebers and I chose Sudan. I have been absoutely sickened by what I have read about, and I am looking forward to helping in anyway that I can.
Posted by: TiffanyJO | February 24, 2005 at 01:14 PM
I am doing a research project in my english class on genocide, we were asked to pick a country and my group memebers and I chose Sudan. I have been absoutely sickened by what I have read about, and I am looking forward to helping in anyway that I can.
Posted by: TiffanyJO | February 24, 2005 at 01:14 PM
How about raising an Army of Volunteers to join the AU troops in Sudan? Why not? Use the power of numbers to put into the villages and protect them the way that Brain Steidle said they did.
Posted by: Carl Loeber | March 19, 2005 at 10:34 PM