[Peace-discuss] Save Darfur? or use it against Sudan?

[C. G. Estabrook]

[The rest of the world sees what many American liberals don't -- that 
the US is using the same tactics against Sudan that it used against 
Serbia and Iraq to reduce countries that wouldn't follow orders.  The US 
demanded a UN force in Sudan, but when that's accepted, the US ups the 
ante. Instead of paying for the UN force, the US wants Iraq-style 
sanctions.  --CGE]

	Bashir warns West not to repeat Iraq 'mistakes'
	in crisis over Darfur
	By Agence France Presse
	Monday, July 02, 2007

KHARTOUM: Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Sunday warned against an 
"Iraqification" of the crisis in Darfur, saying he would rather export 
no oil at all than be forced to accept a humanitarian oil-for-food 
program. "We will never accept an oil-for-food program, even if we have 
to keep our oil deep in the bowels of the earth," he told journalists, 
accusing the West of hyping the Darfur crisis precisely because of its 
interest in Sudan's energy resources.

He was speaking as more than 30 heads of state gathered in Ghana's 
capital Sunday to debate a pan-African government and to discuss a joint 
United Nations-African Union (AU) peacekeeping force in Darfur. Bashir 
had earlier canceled his participation in the three-day AU summit after 
the death of an adviser.

Human Rights Watch has called on the UN Security Council to create a 
mechanism in Sudan similar to the Iraqi oil-for-food program set up in 
1995 that was aimed at assisting humanitarian needs without allowing 
Iraq the means to rebuild its military.

Bashir said that the United States wanted to repeat the mistakes it made 
in Iraq in Sudan and that current US sanctions against Khartoum would 
not ease the suffering in the war-ravaged western region.

"The US wants to make mistakes in Sudan in exactly the same way it did 
in Iraq," said Bashir, who regularly accuses the West of seeking to 
topple his regime.

The United States said in June that the threat of more sanctions against 
Sudan would only be lifted when Khartoum makes good on its pledge to 
allow United Nations peacekeepers into Darfur.

Similarly, the head of the African Union commission on Sunday called for 
a new United Nations resolution to ensure that Sudan accepts the 
deployment of the long-awaited force.

Alpha Omar Konare said in his opening speech at the AU summit that 
progress had been made since the last heads of state meeting in January 
when Khartoum's ambitions to assume the  presidency of the organization 
were effectively scuppered by the continued bloodshed in Darfur.

"We have made progress [on Darfur] because Sudan has accepted the hybrid 
force" of African Union and United Nations troops, he said.

"Now we need to implement it, persuade our Sudanese brothers to 
implement it. What is lacking today is a UN resolution and fresh 
resources to deploy our troops on the ground."

Diplomats disclosed last week that Britain has co-drafted with Ghana a 
Security Council resolution authorizing the joint peacekeeping force and 
warned of possible sanctions if the Sudanese parties failed to 
cooperate. But Bashir suggested such threats were counterproductive, 
asking: "Will these sanctions help Darfur's displaced leave the camps 
and find the means to subsist?"

While Bashir has accepted the deployment of the hybrid UN-led 
peacekeeping force in Darfur, he vowed resistance to any further bid to 
strengthen the force.

"We will fight against any attempt to impose international or Western 
forces ... If the West intervenes, we will have the right to 
resistance," he insisted.

"The situation on the ground in Darfur is improving. Now IDPs 
[internally displaced persons] are voluntarily returning to their 
villages," he said. - AFP