War fears intensify in Darfur

The deadline escalates the Khartoum regime’s standoff with the United Nations over Darfur to a crisis point, pitting Sudanese determination to resist possible war crimes investigations against a U.N. push to take on a new, tough peacekeeping mission.

Many observers believe Sudan has dug in against U.N. deployment in the vast western region because it fears the force will hunt down officials and government allies suspected of war crimes for atrocities committed by nomadic Arab tribes on Darfur’s ethnic African communities.

The U.S. and Europe have stepped up demands that Sudan let in U.N. troops, which still must be assembled at a time when the world body is forming a peacekeeping force for south Lebanon. Sweden and Norway repeated Monday that they are prepared to contribute to a Darfur intervention.

European Union spokesman Amadeu Altafaj Tardio warned of dire consequences if the 7,000 African Union peacekeepers are made to pull out before a U.N. force can take over.

"There would be a very difficult scenario,” Altafaj Tardio said in a telephone interview. "We need a stronger force on the ground to ensure security. It is crucial to reach an agreement with the Sudanese before that deadline.”

The removal of the AU peacekeepers would increase chances for a surge of bloodshed in the arid region, where fighting stemming from long-standing disputes over land and water has killed some 200,000 people since 2003 and chased an estimated 2.5 million people from their homes.

After ethnic Africans revolted against the Arab-led Khartoum regime, the government allegedly unleashed Arab militiamen known as janjaweed who have been blamed for widespread atrocities. The United States has described the rapes, killings and other attacks as genocide.

Aid workers say the conflict has worsened in recent months, and U.N. officials warn that hundreds of thousands of people could die if aid operations collapse. Twelve aid workers have been killed in Darfur this year, most in the last two months.

Sudan’s military is now reportedly waging a major offensive in Darfur involving thousands of soldiers and militiamen backed by warplanes.

The AU force, which is underfunded and undermanned, has struggled to keep stability amid the recent violence, so the United Nations wants to deploy a beefed up force of 20,000 soldiers with a stronger mandate to stop the fighting.

The African peacekeepers’ mandate runs out Sept. 30, and last week the Security Council passed a resolution that would put the AU force under U.N. control, pending Sudan’s consent. The government in Khartoum promptly rejected the resolution.

On Monday, Sudan went a step further. Foreign Minister Ali Ahmed Kerti said the AU force can remain in Darfur only if it accepts Arab League and Sudanese funding. He gave the African Union a week to agree or get its troops out, a government statement said.

Kerti said he delivered the message at a meeting Monday with the African Union’s representative in Khartoum, Nigerian Ambassador Baba Gana Kingibe.

Kerti insisted Sudan is not trying to get rid of the peacekeepers, saying the government "has always advocated the presence of an African force in Darfur.”

Britain’s Foreign Office warned Monday that "there could potentially be significant humanitarian repercussion if this (U.N.) force is not in place. It looks clear to us that there is a significant buildup of the Sudan government military in Darfur.”

But Sudan has only been increasing its opposition to a United Nations force.

On Sunday, riot police broke up demonstrations in favor of the peacekeepers at a university in el-Fasher, capital of North Darfur province. Two students died and more than 10 were injured, the United Nations reported.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has called the proposed U.N. force an attempt to impose Western colonial control over his country.

Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, who was based in Sudan until al-Bashir’s government forced him out in the late 1990s, has called on Islamic militants to battle any U.N. troops that deploy.

Anoushka Marashlian, an analyst with London-based Global Insight, said Sudan’s leadership is worried because the United Nations has drawn up a list of officials, janjaweed members and rebels it wants to indict before the International Criminal Court.

"The spectacle of disheveled former Liberian strongman Charles Taylor facing war crimes charges at The Hague is enough of a deterrent for Bashir,” Marashlian said.

Taylor, the ousted president of Liberia, appeared before the tribunal in July to face charges that he was responsible for the murder, rape and mutilation of thousands of people during the bloody civil war in the neighboring West African nation of Sierra Leone.<