Darfur rebels prefer UN to AU???

Darfur rebel group rejects talks

CNN

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- A Darfur rebel group said Thursday it refused to return to African Union-sponsored peace talks and rejected the pan-African body as lead mediator to end the 22-month-old conflict.

The leader of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), Khalil Ibrahim, told Reuters it would only accept the United Nations as principal mediator in any peace talks and wanted U.N. troops stationed in Darfur.

The other main rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), said it was also very unhappy with the African Union (AU) but had not yet decided whether to attend a new round of talks in the Nigerian capital Abuja.

(snip)

"The government has defeated the AU and the AU don't have any guarantees for any future agreement or political solution," he said.

He said the AU could participate as observers in talks, and in a peacekeeping mission on the ground, but JEM would not accept anything less than U.N. peacekeepers in Darfur.

"We are asking to replace the AU with international troops -- U.N. peacekeepers," he added.

(snip) read in entirety at above link

Mata Musing

The Sudanese rebels should be careful what they wish for. The UN has a deplorable history for enforcing peace treaties. It might also be prudent to point out that they were also involved in the recent agreements between the gov't and rebels. US Security Council rep Danforth has been working with this conflict since the beginning of this century.

Consider also the rising evidence in the peacekeeping sex scandals in the Congo. The Sudan rebels' suggestion of replacing the AU troops with UN peacekeepers might prove downright foolhardy.

Why so much hope is placed in replacing the AU with the UN escapes me. The rebels, no doubt busy with their own daily plights, have probably missed the historical fact that the UN does little more than talk, and fears any type of military "enforcement" necessary to clamp down on terrorist regimes. Thus the Sudanese gov't and associated milia groups like Janjaweed can "defeat" the UN as easily as the AU.