Troops are readied for Sudan

ADDIS ABABA -- The African Union is preparing to send hundreds of troops to Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region where more than 1 million people have been uprooted by conflict, a senior official of the union said yesterday.

"The protection force will be deployed as soon as possible," AU Director of Peace and Security Sam Ibok said at a press conference. "Forces from Rwanda and Nigeria are on standby. They are ready to go."

The Darfur mission, announced on the eve of the annual summit of African leaders in Addis Ababa, will mark the organization's only joint military deployment since it sent peacekeepers to Burundi in 2003.

The union has deployed unarmed observers to Darfur and had said that if all parties agreed it was necessary, it would send armed troops to protect the monitors.

Ibok said he was certain Sudan would not object.

"We are confident that they will accept," Ibok said. "It has been difficult, but we are talking to them."

Khartoum is under heavy pressure from African countries, the United States, and the United Nations to restore security in Darfur, described as the world's worst humanitarian disaster.

Ibok said an initial deployment of 300 troops would probably be sent to guard an eventual 60 AU peace monitors, as well as to patrol refugee camps and border areas between Sudan and Chad, where some 200,000 Sudanese have fled to safety from attacks by Arab militias.

The Darfur crisis is seen by analysts and diplomats as a major test for the African Union. One official said the war in Sudan's west could be a test for the two-year-old organization's goal of resolving conflicts in Africa.

Ibok said the union was not willing to call the Darfur violence genocide or ethnic cleansing, as some human rights groups and US officials have done. But he said the union nevertheless was extremely concerned over human rights abuses.

Union officials are equally careful not to describe the planned Darfur troop deployment as a "peacekeeping operation."

Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail of Sudan said yesterday that Khartoum had agreed to attend union-mediated negotiations on Darfur in Ethiopia this month and would "cooperate fully with the African Union."

Despite pressure from the union, the United Nations, and the United States, the path to peace in Darfur looks uncertain, with two rebel groups saying they would they would not negotiate unless Sudan first disarmed marauding militias and respected a shaky ceasefire agreed in April.

The rebel Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Movement say the government has armed Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, to loot and burn African villages in a campaign of ethnic cleansing. Khartoum denies the charge.

As many as 1 million people have been driven from their homes by the violence that erupted last year. Up to 30,000 have been killed.

Sudan officials say they are carrying out a promise to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to disarm the militias and allow unrestricted aid access. But some observers have cast doubt on Sudan's ability to disarm militias.