WEDMADANI, Sudan, Nov 17, 2007 - AFP News
President Omar al-Beshir on Saturday ordered the reopening of auxiliary training camps in Sudan to prepare for war and refused to accept certain countries from sending peacekeepers to Darfur. In a fiery speech to his Arab heartland, Beshir spoke as a political crisis threatens peace between north and south Sudan, and toughened his stance against US criticism that Khartoum is obstructing a UN-African Union peace mission. "We order the legitimate sons of the people to open their camps... not to declare war but to be ready," he said in the capital of Al-Jazira state to mark 18 years of a popular defence forces unit linked to his political party. The Sudan People's Liberation Movement, former southern rebels who once battled the auxiliary, walked out of the Khartoum government last month. They brand the popular defence forces a "militia" of Beshir's National Congress Party and wanted it dissolved -- one of a series of disputes that saw talks between the SPLM and the north collapse last Sunday. Beshir levelled all blame on southerners for violations of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended Africa's longest-running civil war in 2005, denying his northern government had any responsibility. "It is them, the southerners, who violated the agreement numerous times," he added in a speech peppered with references to the Koran and holy war. "We told our brothers in the SPLM that neither America, Britain or Europe are more keen for peace than us," he said. "America, Britain and Europe are liars and hypocrites who want our resources and that's why they stole our children to sell in a slave market in Europe," he added, referring to a French charity's attempt to fly children out of Chad.
On the fate of the oil-rich Abiye region, another source of conflict between north and south, Beshir said northerners would accept only a border demarcation dating back to 1905 which would give them full control of the area. Relations between Khartoum and the south have become increasingly unstable and talks aimed at resolving the political crisis broke down last Sunday. Their 2005 peace agreement provided for a six-year transition period in which the south would enjoy regional autonomy and participate in a national unity government in Khartoum.
Switching his attention to a prospective UN-African Union peacekeeping mission to western Sudan's war-torn Darfur, Beshir said the "boots of those who attacked the prophet Mohammed would never trample on Sudanese land". He was referring to Swedes and Norwegians who want to participate in a UN-African Union hybrid force set to deploy to Darfur. They incurred a tidal wave of criticism in the Islamic world after newspapers in the two countries last year published cartoons depicting the Muslim prophet that sparked global controversy. Beshir also said Sudan would not allow Nepal or Thailand to send troops to Darfur, although said he agreed with the United Nations for engineering troops to arrive from China and Pakistan.
On Thursday, US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Washington was "deeply troubled" by "foot-dragging and obstruction" from Sudan over the joint peacekeeping force. The head of the UN department of peacekeeping operations, Jean Marie Guehenno, also said this week that the 26,000-member prospective peacekeeping force may fail without air mobility and firepower. More than four years of conflict in Darfur has killed more than 200,000 people from the combined effects of war, famine and disease while 2.2 million others have been left homeless by what the United States calls genocide.
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