 Senior United Nations diplomats seek to persuade Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's government on Tuesday to accept a U.N. peacekeeping force in the western Darfur region.
"Nope. Nope. Ain't gonna do it!"
"C'mon! Name your price!"
"Well, that's more like it!" |
Despite a peace deal signed by the government and the main Darfur rebel group on May 5, dozens have been killed in clashes between rebels and government-armed Arab militias. An African Union (AU) peacekeeping force is cash-strapped and ill-equipped.
| Which is why Omar wants nobody but them... |
Khartoum, under international pressure to accept a transition to U.N. peacekeepers, initially resisted and said such a deployment would cause an Iraq-like quagmire that would attract Islamist militants into attacking the U.N. troops. But since the peace deal was struck, the government has softened its stance and says it does not reject a U.N. force but wants to be consulted about its mandate in Darfur -- an arid ethnically mixed region the size of France.
| They'll reject competently-led troops. They'll have to be from Islamic countries, like Bangla. Nobody over 5'7". No lefties. Nobody whose name rhymes with "snuff." And they all have to be redheads. |
Veteran troubleshooter Lakhdar Brahimi and U.N. peacekeeping head Hedi Annabi are due to arrive for a two-day visit during which they plan to meet Bashir and other government leaders. "We are hoping that we can work out an agreement with the government because ... this (deployment) should not be done without the agreement of the government," said U.N. deputy spokesman Bahaa Elkoussy. The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution this month that envisages U.N. peacekeepers taking over from the some 7,000 AU troops.
| "We'll accept UN peacekeepers, but only Antarcticans." |
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