Sudan plans to send 10,500 troops to Darfur

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said it had obtained a copy of a proposal, drawn up by Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, to send 10,500 new government troops to Darfur. Full report Reuters Aug 18, 2006 (via ST) - excerpt:

Bashir, quoted by the official Sudanese News Agency, told a gathering of the armed forces on Monday, "We are determined to defeat any forces entering the country just as Hizbollah has defeated the Israeli forces.

Photo: Soldiers man a Sudanese army checkpoint outside the abandoned village of Hashaba, south of Al-Fasher in Darfur, in June 2006. A UN-led force for Darfur would need up to 18,600 troops and intense international pressure has to be put on Sudan to accept the intervention, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said. (AFP Aug 1, 2006/Charles Onians)

Aug 18 2006 HRW report: U.N.: Reject Sudan's Darfur Plan - Khartoum tries to head off UN force to protect civilians (hat tip CFD)



Photo: A soldier with the Government of Sudan sits next to weapons and ammunition at an outpost in Sudan's northern Darfur town of Tawilla May 17, 2006.



Photo: Sudanese protestors from student and youth organisations rally in front of the parliament building in Khartoum, to protest against UN plans to deploy peacekeepers in Darfur in June 2006.