The build-up of Sudanese troops in the war-torn western Darfur region could lead to a human-rights catastrophe unless United Nations peacekeeping troops are sent to the region soon, Amnesty International warned on Monday.
Witnesses in el-Fasher in North Darfur have told the London-based group that Sudanese military flights have been flying in troops and arms to the region, said Kate Gilmore, Amnesty’s executive deputy secretary general.
”Displaced people in Darfur are absolutely terrified that the same soldiers that expelled them from their homes and villages may now be sent supposedly to protect them,” Gilmore said in a written statement.
The UN Security Council was set to meet on Monday to discuss a draft resolution co-authored by the United States and Britain calling for the transferring of peacekeeping from the financially strapped African Union troops, whose mandate in the region ends on September 30, to a much larger and better equipped UN force.
Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir opposes such a UN force on Sudanese territory, and has said he plans to send Sudanese troops to Darfur to pacify the region. On Sunday, Sudan rejected a final push made by a senior US envoy in Khartoum to win approval for the UN peacekeepers.
A message left for the Sudanese government on Monday was not immediately returned. There was no answer at telephone listings for several UN officials in Sudan.
Gilmore called the Sudanese government’s plan to deploy its own forces in Darfur a ”sham” that the UN must reject.
”How can Sudan, which appears to be about to launch its own offensive in Darfur, realistically propose being a peacekeeper in a conflict to which it is a major party and perpetrator of grave human rights violations?” she said.
More than 200 000 people have died the remote Darfur region since 2003 when ethnic African tribes revolted against the Arab-led Khartoum government. The United Nations and aid organisations recently have warned of a deepening humanitarian crisis there, saying violence has mounted since a peace agreement was signed in May by the Sudanese government and one of the region’s major rebel
groups. – Sapa-AP