Africa News
Sudan agrees to hybrid UN-AU peacekeeping force (2nd Roundup)
Apr 16, 2007, 19:11 GMT
Riyadh/Khartoum - After months of international pressure, Sudan has agreed to allow the UN to deploy expanded technical support for African Union troops now in its embattled Darfur region, foreign minister Lam Akol said Monday.
The UN has been pushing Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to accept a three-phase plan for Darfur. Khartoum has now okayed the first two, which mostly involve logistical help and allow 3,000 UN troops along with helicopter gunships to be deployed,
In New York, Sudan's Ambassador Abdalmamud Abdalhaleem gave written confirmation of the agreement to the UN Security Council, and underlined the urgency of the mission.
'It is the sincere hope of the Sudan that implementation of the heavy support package would proceed expeditiously,' he wrote.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and African Union chairman Alpha Oumar Konare met in New York with special envoys of the UN and AU, Jan Eliasson and Salim Salim, to discuss further possibilities to resolve the Darfur conflict.
The 15 council members are to discuss the issue Monday evening, behind closed doors, and continue the discussions on Tuesday.
An estimated 300,000 people have been killed during the four-year conflict, and more than 2.2 million people have been displaced.
'Sudan has accepted the second phase of the agreement of UN support for the African force,' Akol told a news conference, saying it had settled reservations it had with the use of helicopter gunships.
The second phase would see the deployment of armed troops to back up the AU force and would allow for the helicopters as well.
Akol said this acceptance could pave the way for the third phase of the plan, which would see some 20,000 UN peacekeepers sent to the region, now manned by an underfunded and under-equipped AU force of 7,000.
Al-Bashir had earlier Monday told Saudi King Abdullah he would accept the hybrid force.
King Abdullah said that he believed that this agreement would improve the security and stability of the region, the report said.
After meeting in New York Monday morning with Ban, German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier made clear that if Khartoum refused to allow the expanded force, the European Union would consider its own set of sanctions separate from the United Nations.
The US has also threatened unilateral sanctions over what it has called genocide in Darfur.
China has been working behind the scenes to get Sudan, which supplies it with oil, to cooperate, but has drug its feet on UN sanctions.
US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte on Monday called for a sizable joint UN-AU peacekeeping force to be deployed in the region.
In what was billed as a last diplomatic push before harsher economic sanctions are imposed by Washington, Negroponte was expected to press Sudanese leaders to allow a robust force of UN peacekeepers into Darfur to bolster the struggling AU mission currently on the ground.
'We must move quickly to a larger, hybrid UN-AU peacekeeping force with a single unified chain of command that conforms to UN standards and practices,' said Negroponte, who visited the western Darfur region on Saturday.
Last November, Sudan agreed in principle to the three-phase UN support package that will culminate in the deployment of more than 20,000 UN peacekeepers, in an area about the size of France which is currently patrolled by the sparse AU force.
Sudanese officials had opposed UN participation in a peacekeeping force, comparing UN entry to colonial occupation. Sudan had insisted the world body must only provide technical and logistical support to the cash-strapped AU.
'There have been disappointments in the past, where agreements have been made, but then not necessarily carried out,' Negroponte told reporters in the capital Khartoum.
'What I would stress at this particular point is that it is the actions that are required and that words are not sufficient.'
AU officials have long said the under-manned force cannot stem violence in the region.
Late Saturday, unknown gunmen shot and killed an AU officer in the north Darfur capital city of El Fasher, barely two weeks after an unprovoked attack left five Senegalese troops killed, sparking warnings from the West African nation that it might withdraw its 500- strong contribution.
Sudan is charged with arming Arab militias known as Janjaweed to crush a 2003 rebellion by members of African tribes who complained that remote Darfur remained undeveloped owing to neglect from Sudan's powerful central government.
The resulting scorched-earth campaign of rape and murder has led to the displacement of 2.5 million people and spilled over Sudan's borders into Chad and the Central African Republic.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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Older Talkback
page: 1
I agree, Islam is an awful religion. If anything, it's even worse than Christianity.
Islam is unlike any other religion, it is fundamentally violent. When's the last time you saw a Baptist or a Sikh or a Buddhist explode himself in a crowded public? Only Muslims do this & only Islam has but a single prophet, somehow deemed the 'supreme messenger of god' despite being a pedophile mass-murderer pirate. The daily headlines clearly reflect this, esp. in poor Sudan
Wow, you couldn't be more wrong. To say that because because atrocities have been commited in the name of Islam that Islam is evil is to say that Christianity is evil as well; one can't ignore the terrible things Christians have done.
How dare you. How dare you insult a religion of peace. A religion twisted by a small minority. A religion no more violent than Christianity. You obviously do not know your history. If you look to your not so distant past you will find Spaniards and British explorers subjugating, forcefully converting, and killing many thousands of American Indians. You might even look a few centuries farther back when Christians such as Renald de Chatillion attacked Muslim trade caravans in the holy land during times of peace. You cannot blame Islam for greedy dictators and fanatics. If you did then America should be termed as Nazi because of its skinhead population. Maybe Israel is a fundamentalist state because of its radically observant Jewish population. Do not be gobbled up by media stereotypes. Look for the silent majority who are skipped over by the crowd pleasing news organizations.
Gidalya
' If you did then America should be termed as Nazi because of its skinhead population '
What do you mean by that ? What does ' America ' have to do with ' skinhead ' or any other insult ? Yes , there are many ' skinheads ' in America . It is a country of 300 million diverse peoples . In a country that big you will always find ' bad people ' .
When i travel to America i see Synagogues and Mosques and Churches . When I travel to Europe i see Synagogues and Mosques and Churches surrounded by police with machine guns .
Where is the ' skinhead ' problem ?
The point was that skinheads make up a small part of the US and that the US should not be labeled on their behalf like previous commentaries were attempting to label all of Islam on the behalf of a few radicals.
Who knows the actual numbers of radicals in existence? They are perpetrating a lot of damage for being just a few! Otherwise, all types of peoples, philosophies, and religions have had their faults, with the worst being the subjection, maiming, and killing in the name of their God, Prophet, or whatever reasons please them...
What is relevant here is the fact that a joint AU-UN peacekeeping force has been brokered to try to bring stability and hope to those in dire need of it. Who else could they turn to while (a few) extremists are bent on ruling the world.
The other relevant fact here is that the extremists are ruining the world.
There, I have said my peace.
Islamic extremists are the main problem in the world today and it is a problem that is not going to go away by itself. How anyone can be brainwashed into being a suicide bomber beats me. It is noticeable, however, that the leaders and the 'brainwashers are not the suicide bombers. Maybe they don't want a life in paradise with 70 virgins - or maybe the reason is that they are cowardly scumbags who take advantage of the ignorant and poor to cause as much suffering and distress to the innocent in the name of Allah (so that makes it OK).
The answer is education and fairness - not bombs (although bombs do play a part if we can identify a deserving target). Sadly there seems to be little education and no fairness in many Muslim countries, and there probably never will be - especially if you are female. Maybe we should just get out and let them return to the stone age - with a little help from a total ban on all technology trade. Iran cannot even make petrol!
Christianity has some violence in it's history but that is against the Christian doctrine. Islam's entire history is violent and that is exactly according to it's doctrine.
Christianity would have you 'love your neighbour as yourself' & 'turn the other cheek'.
Islam would have you 'slay the infidels to the last (Koran 8:7) & how about this one: Ishaq:315 “Muhammad was ennobled because of the bloody fighting. I swear we shall never lack soldiers, nor army leaders. Driving before us infidels until we subdue them with a halter above their noses and a branding iron. We will drive them to the ends of the earth. We will pursue them on horse and on foot. We will never deviate from fighting in our cause. We will bring upon the infidels the fate of the Ad and Jurhum. Any people that disobey Muhammad will pay for it. If you do not surrender to Islam, then you will live to regret it. You will be shamed in Hell, forced to wear a garment of molten pitch forever!”
Now, pray tell, where are the Christian verses equivalent to this?? Where are the daily headlines of Christian terrorist attacks?
I would first like to say that I am sorry to the readers of this article who have become confused by the little discussion between myself and Mr Ashraf. I am very pleased with the progress in Sudan and am very much hoping for the full acceptance of UN peacekeepers by the Sudanese Government.
As for Mr Ashraf, similar doctrines are present in many other religions. Take Judaism for instance. The Torah (Old Testament)and writings of several Prophets have lengthy descriptions of smashing idols, destroying the towns of those who inhabited the land of Israel(ie. Moabites, Caananites, etc.) after wandering in the desert, and many other concepts relating to destroying nonbelievers.
In the case of Christianity, the afore mentioned subjugation of American Indians and killing of Muslim traders were completely in step with the doctrine of the day. Few Popes until the twentieth century had any qualms with these practices. But, I digress, my main point is that many religions have moving scriptures that call for rising up against opposition(infidels). This does not mean that the whole religion is bad. Just because we hear about the bad eggs doesn't mean there isn't a great deal of good.
Islam, like Judaism is a religion of peace that has been twisted to meet the needs of madmen like Osama. I will admit that Islam as a religion is more susceptible to such twisting, but its true doctrines are those of peace.
Mr. Angry Jew, you just don’t get it, do you? Either that or you won’t admit it.
You are ‘pleased with the progress in Sudan’? The Muslims there have murdered 3 million Christians – you find this pleasing?
You claim that other religions have ‘similar doctrines’ to Islam? Show us! Please post an open-ended verse instructing the murder of nonbelievers as the Islamic ones below?
You claim that ‘Islam is a religion of peace’? How then do you explain the 8,078 Jihad attacks since 911? (thereligionofpeace.com details all of them)
You claim Osama ‘twisted’ Islam? The truth is, Islam ‘twisted’ him: When he says he is ‘following in his prophets footsteps’ he’s telling the truth, and if you had actually read the Koran & Hadith, you’d know that.
It is a criminal to tolerate this hateful dogma in the civilized Western world. It’s like inviting future 911’s every bloody day. Shame on you.
Tabari IX:69 'Killing disbelievers is a small matter to us.'
Tabari VIII:38 'The Messenger of Allah commanded that all of the Jewish men and boys who had reached puberty should be beheaded.
8.55, 9.5, 95.5, 9.111 Infidels are worst beasts and lowest creatures and must be killed wherever they are found.
Tabari VII:97 'The morning after the murder of Ashraf, the Prophet declared, 'Kill any Jew who falls under your power.''
Ishaq:315 “Muhammad was ennobled because of the bloody fighting. I swear we shall never lack soldiers, nor army leaders. Driving before us infidels until we subdue them with a halter above their noses and a branding iron. We will drive them to the ends of the earth. We will pursue them on horse and on foot. We will never deviate from fighting in our cause. We will bring upon the infidels the fate of the Ad and Jurhum. Any people that disobey Muhammad will pay for it. If you do not surrender to Islam, then you will live to regret it. You will be shamed in Hell, forced to wear a garment of molten pitch forever!”
From the Book of Jihad , on page 580 of Maktba Dar-us-Salam’s publication of Sahih Al-Bukhari : 'Jihad is holy fighting in Allah’s Cause with full force of weaponry. It is given the utmost importance in Islam and is one of its Pillars. By Jihad Islam is established, Allah is made superior and He becomes the only God who may be worshiped.”
When Christians commit murder in the name of Christianity, they are not following their prophet or religion.
When Muslims commit murder in the name of Islam, they ARE following their prophet and religion.
page: 1
AshrafApr 16th, 2007 - 19:54:32
They shouldn't be sending a peacekeeping force into Sudan, they should be sending a bomber force. The Muslim overlords there should have been annihilated long ago but instead the world sat back & watched them murder 3 million infidels.
Sudan is the prime example of Islam's true nature: “As reported by Sudan's own Sudan Human Rights Organization: the forcible closure of churches, expulsion of priests, forced displacement of populations, forced Islamisation and Arabisation ... widespread torture, ethnic cleansing and crucifixion of pastors. Reported in the Fiftieth Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights: widespread destruction of hundreds of churches, forced conversions of Christians to Islam, concentration camps, genocide of the Nuba people, systematic rape of women, enslavement of children, torture of priests and clerics, burning alive of pastors and catechists, crucifixion and mutilation of priests”
To anyone reading this in the West: every time a mosque pops up in your neighborhood, this murderous cancer called Islam encroaches into your lives. If you permit this, it’s only a matter of time before there are suicide bombings on your street! Do you want these headlines to be your headlines? Do you want your children to grow up paying a Jizya tax? You have to say no to Islam now! Hold your leaders accountable; call them & speak out against it’s terrorist dogma. It is so obviously NOT a religion of peace. Your future depends on it.
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