 Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir warned Darfur would become a "graveyard" for any foreign military contingent entering the region against Khartoum's will, newspapers reported Sunday. "We are strongly opposed to any foreign intervention in Sudan and Darfur will be a graveyard for any foreign troops venturing to enter," he was quoted as saying Saturday.
| Sounds like a threat to me. They sure don't like visitors to those Islamic paradises, do they? |
His comments came amid stepped-up efforts by the international community to send UN peacekeeping forces to war-torn Darfur in place of African Union troops, which have failed to quell the three-year-old bloodshed.
| He doesn't mind having incompetently led troops there. He's afraid real soldiers would give him a problem. |
Bashir, who regularly accuses the United States and its allies of fomenting a conspiracy to plunder his country's resources, again accused the West of seeking to use the western region of Darfur as a launch pad to spread its interests in Sudan.
| Too bad Omar wasn't bright enough to counter that conspiracy, eh? Maybe the Sudanese should kill him and get themselves another dictator? |
The United States, which currently chairs the UN Security Council, saw its hopes of clinching a resolution for a UN mandate in Darfur by the end of the month dashed but vowed to continue its efforts.
| "Duh. Nope. Never occurred to us that Omar might not like the idea. Nope. Nope." |
The transition is expected to be discussed during an AU Peace and Security Council meeting in Addis Ababa on March 3.
| They have 5-star catering in Adis Ababa? Who knew? |
Bashir was also dismissive of the AU, which has hinted it would not oppose its own replacement by a UN contingent. "The African Union forces can leave the country if they believe that they have failed to carry out their duties," Bashir said.
| "We'll take it from here!" |
There has been increased speculation that NATO would step in to operate the transition between AU and UN peacekeepers, an option supported by Darfur rebels but implacably opposed by Khartoum.
| "Little or no way, Jose!" |
Bashir even found support for his resistance to a Western deployment among members of the opposition. "We firmly reject any foreign intervention, particularly by the Americans, in Sudan," Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim, a communist MP, said Sunday at a Parliament meeting.
| "Eeeew! Imperialists! Ucky cooties!" |
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