Mbeki: S Africa wants to see UN assist in a way agreed by Khartoum and AU

Sudanese President al-Bashir told a news conference with Mbeki that UN forces were unacceptable because they would come to Sudan with colonial and imperial ambitions.

"We do not reject the United Nations, but in no way will we accept UN troops because ... these troops have an imperial and colonial agenda. Changing this mission to the United Nations will never happen, never ever happen," he said.

Bashir said "if the UN is realy serious to deal with us they had to come before taking their decision under chapter seven and talk with us".

Mbeki said South Africa wanted to see the United Nations assist in a way agreed by the government and the African Union.



Photo: S. Africa's President Thabo Mbeki (L) and his Sudanese counterpart Omar Hassan al-Bashir address the media in Sudan's capital Khartoum June 20, 2006. (Reuters) Full report Sudan Tribune June 22, 2006.

UPDATE: June 22 2006 Reuters report via Sudan Tribune - Sudan has not shut door on UN troops - South Africa : Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, South Africa's FM, told Reuters that Sudan's main complaint was that the UN had consulted virtually everyone on the Darfur situation but ignored Khartoum. "Khartoum's concern was that the UN had never discussed the deployment with Sudan as a country. The UN talked to the AU, to us, and to everyone else but not to the Sudanese and they felt that was not right," Dlamini Zuma said.
"That was the cause of the suspicion by the Sudanese of what the UN's motives might be. They are not against the UN but they need to be convinced that the deployment is necessary."