Sudan on Sunday reiterated refusal of the deployment of
international peacekeepers in its troubled western Darfur region
under Chapter Seven of the UN Charter, which allows UN-approved
military intervention without the consent of the concerned
state.
Sudanese Presidential Advisor Majzoub al-Khalifa told reporters
that he had reiterated the government's position during a meeting
with a joint assessment team of the United Nations and the African
Union (AU), which is visiting Sudan to study the possibility of a
UN takeover of the peacekeeping mission in Darfur from the AU.
"We clarified to them that we had not authorized the AU to
transfer its mandate to any other party," the Sudanese official
said.
Al-Khalifa added, "We also expressed our definite refusal of
deploying international forces in Darfur under Chapter Seven, and
the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) does not include any role for the
UN in the region."
On May 5, the Sudanese government signed the peace deal with a
main Darfur rebel faction in the Nigerian capital Abuja in order to
put an end to the conflict in Darfur, which has waged for the past
three years.
"We asked the assessment team to concentrate their mission on
the implementation of the DPA and the reinforcement of the AU
forces in Darfur," al-Khalifa said, adding that the UN ought to
provide assistance in the humanitarian field and observe the
signatories of the DPA to be committed to the agreement.
He stressed that all the parties concerned should double their
efforts to achieve the main aim, which was to realize peace in
Darfur.
Regarding an al-Qaida announcement to move activities to Darfur
in case that international forces are deployed there in the name of
defending the Sudanese people, al-Khalifa said the Sudanese people
did not need any one from the outside to defend them because the
Sudanese people "can defend their belief and sovereignty by
themselves."
The joint UN-AU assessment team was formed according to a UN
Security Council resolution adopted on May 16.
The Sudanese government agreed to let the team in after talks
with a Security Council delegation in Khartoum last Tuesday.
The team arrived in the Sudanese capital on Friday.
During its two-week visit, the team will evaluate how to
reinforce the 7,800-strong AU forces in Darfur in the next few
months and prepare for a possible transfer of the peacekeeping
mission from the AU to the UN.
Besides having meetings with Sudanese officials in Khartoum, the
assessment team will also visit Darfur to inspect the situation
there.
(Xinhua News Agency June 12, 2006)
