CAIRO, 22 April 2005 — Egypt said it plans to double the size of its contingent in the African Union (AU) monitoring force in western Sudan’s Darfur region.
Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Ghait told reporters after a meeting with Sudan’s officials “President Hosni Mubarak suggested his plans at the three-way summit on the on the crisis in Sudan’s western Darfur region last Tuesday with leaders of Sudan and Ethiopia.”
“President Mubarak made clear that Egypt is prepared and has a definite intention to reinforce the Egyptian presence in the monitoring force by doubling the number of Egyptians, which now stands at about 100 police and military,” Aboul Gheit said. “Egypt will act soon to double that or more.”
“The Nigerian president (Olusegun Obasanjo), as chairman of the African Union, gave a commitment to move towards inviting African states to reinforce the African presence on the ground,” said Aboul Gheit. “He is keen on this initiative,” he added.
The three counties also discussed ways to help Sudan deal with the UN Security Council Resolution 1593. The resolution called for trial of suspects believed to be involved in genocide in the war-torn province of Darfur in western Sudan before the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Egypt said that there is no need to refer suspected Sudanese war criminals to the ICC if they can be prosecuted at home since the local judicial authorities are capable and qualified.
“The African leaders agreed that legal experts would go to Sudan to advise the government on how to handle the UN Security Council demand that it hand over alleged war criminals for trial in the ICC,” said the minister. “We are sure that Sudan will be able to handle this situation domestically and cooperate with the ICC.”
Khartoum has previously said it would refuse to hand over its citizens to face justice abroad. It says it has already arrested 15 members of the military and security forces for crimes including rape, killing civilians and burning villages in Darfur.
Sudanese opposition leader Sadeq Al Mahdi heads the Ummah Party, one of the largest northern opposition parties, and a foe of the current government, told reporters in Cairo said that Sudan should hand over the war criminals so that his country would not fall under more pressure from abroad.
“The internal misdeeds of our regime have invited sufficient international concern to make the international community now a partner with the Sudan,” said Al Mahdi, displaying an attitude towards foreign intervention that is rare in the region.
UN Troops Begin Arriving in Sudan
More than 40 UN troops arrived in Sudan as the vanguard of a 10,000-strong UN peacekeeping force that is to support a January peace agreement which ended 21 years of civil war in the south of the country, a UN spokesperson said.
Radhia Achouri, spokesperson for UN special representative for Sudan Jan Pronk, told reporters the 44 staff officers from the multinational force arrived Wednesday.
The UN Security Council on March 24 approved the deployment of 10,000 UN peacekeepers to shore up the Jan. 9 peace agreement which put an end to the 21-year-old north-south civil war in Sudan, Africa’s largest country.
Achouri said Gen. Fazle Elahi Akbar, the Bangladeshi UN force commander will visit the main southern cities of Malakal, Wau and Juba yesterday and today to “assess the ground preparations for UN troops’ deployment,” Achouri said.
UN Criticizes Darfur Abuses
Meanwhile, the UN Human Rights Commission adopted a resolution yesterday condemning abuses in Sudan, accepting compromise wording on improving the situation in Darfur.
The resolution, supported by some African countries including Sudan, the United States and the European Union, praised the Sudanese government’s efforts to improve the situation in Darfur, but said criticized widespread and systematic violations by all parties of human rights and international humanitarian law.
“The commission condemns the violence against civilians and sexual violence against women and girls, destruction of villages, widespread displacement and other violations,” the resolution added.
— With additional input from agencies.
