African federation prepares to send forces to Darfour
Sudan-Regional, Politics, 7/6/2004

The director of the peace and security council in the African federation, Sam Eibok, said that the federation is preparing to send an armed protection force of hundreds of soldiers to the west of Sudan as soon as possible in order to supervise the cease fire between Khartoum and the rebels in the area.

Eibok expressed his confidence that the Sudanese government will not oppose that, noting that the first batch of these forces was of 300 soldiers. He explained that he had asked Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania and Botswana to contribute by a force in the first protection force of its kind since the foundation of the federation two years ago.

This step comes one day after a meeting that lasted for 7 hours for the security and peace council in the federation, the crisis in Darfour was on top of its agenda.

For his part, the director of the Sudanese news agency Rabee Abdul Ati expressed his conviction that the consent of the Sudanese government to send protection forces to Darfour come in implementation of the cease fire in the areas of unrest to the west of Sudan, rather than a response to American and Western Pressures on Khartoum.

The Sudanese foreign minister Mustafa Othman Ismael stressed that his country will attend the meetings the countries of the African federation, to convene on July 15 in Ethiopia's capital, in order to reach a solution for Darfur crisis.

The Sudanese Minister stressed his country's position in maintaining total cooperation with the mediation of the African federation which placed Darfur's crisis within the main priorities of its agenda during meetings in Addis Ababa this week.

However, the two al-Adalah Wal Musawat ( Justice and equity ) movements and the Sudan liberation movements announced they will not take part in the negotiations unless the government first dismantles the weapons of the militias which launch these attacks.

The two groups alleged that the government arms what they call the Arab militias, known as Jangweid, to steal and burn African villages in a racial cleansing campaign, while the government denies this accusation.

Khartoum on Sunday and in coincidence with the two visits paid by the UN secretary general Kofi Annan and the US secretary of state Colin Powell, signed a joint official memorandum by which it vowed to dismantle the weapons of Jangweid militias and permit access to the remote western areas and accelerate the pace of talks.

Previous Stories:
  Rebels boycott the Sudanese negotiations in Addis Ababa   (7/5/2004)
  United States Expects Khartoum to Act on Darfur Immediately   (7/3/2004)
  In Sudan, Annan hears reports of 'gross and systematic' abuses of human rights   (7/3/2004)
  Taha starts an Arab tour to explain the inter- Sudanese peace agreement   (6/10/2004)
  Court of appeal finds al-Jazeera correspondent as not guilty   (4/26/2004)
  Arab youth ministers council conclude meetings in Khartoum   (3/10/2004)

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