Sudan rejects the proposed force of United Nations peacekeepers for the war-torn region of Darfur as an attempt to re-colonize the country, its President told the General Assembly Tuesday, calling on world leaders to focus their efforts on supporting the peace agreement signed earlier this year, writes UN News Centre.
In a speech to the Assembly’s annual debate in New York, Omer al-Bashir said that Khartoum refuses “all forms of dictates” about Darfur – where UN officials, including Secretary-General Kofi Annan, have warned that a man-made humanitarian catastrophe is looming.
He criticized last month’s resolution at the Security Council, when it voted to deploy more than 17,000 blue helmets amid mounting concern over what will happen at the end of this month, when African Union (AU) troops stationed in Darfur are slated to leave.
Mr. al-Bashir described the resolution as the climax of efforts to undermine the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA), which was signed in early May by the Government and some of the rebel groups it has been fighting since 2003.
He said the international community should be striving instead to make sure the DPA succeeds and to encourage those rebel groups which have not yet signed the pact to do so.
Kilde: www.un.org
