Darfur Now Safe for UN Troops to Enter in Numbers

Now that neighboring Ethiopia has waged a pre-emptive war in Somalia, and driven the al-Qaeda backed Courts of Islam out, Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM) says it is time to increase the number of UN Troops in Darfur. Why? So they can ensure that that conflict has no resolution. Once the UN gets involved, you can rest assured that there will be no resolution. Story below:

SANTA FE, N.M. – Heading on a diplomatic mission to Sudan, Gov. Bill Richardson said Saturday he hopes to persuade the country's president to accept more U.N. peacekeepers in war-ravaged Darfur, a goal that has eluded world leaders.

The New Mexico Democrat, a potential 2008 presidential candidate, said in an Associated Press interview that he does not expect to settle President Omar al-Bashir's dispute with the U.N. over troop levels during the trip beginning this weekend.

He planned to meet with rebel leaders in Darfur on Tuesday and al-Bashir in Khartoum, the capital, on Monday. Sudan's state news agency confirmed Saturday that Richardson would meet the president; several Western officials were unable to get a meeting with the Sudanese leader during their recent visits.

Richardson, who was U.N. ambassador under President Clinton, said he has three goals for his visit to the African nation: increasing the U.N. force in Darfur, improving the humanitarian situation and helping encourage a cease-fire.

“I'll consider it a success if we accelerate movement in those areas,” Richardson said over breakfast at the governor's mansion before departing. “But I don't want to raise expectations. I don't think we'll settle the U.N. issue.”

The dispute is over a three-stage plan to send some 20,000 peacekeepers and police to Darfur to provide protection to the 2.5 million people uprooted since early 2003 as a result of sectarian conflict. More than 200,000 people have died, victims of violence as well as malnutrition and disease.

Al-Bashir indicated in late December that he would go along with a plan that would create a hybrid U.N.-African Union force. But al-Bashir's U.N. ambassador quickly ruled out any U.N. peacekeeping operation in Darfur.

President Bush's special envoy to Sudan, Andrew Natsios, met with al-Bashir last month. Natsios said he insisted al-Bashir allow 60 U.N. troops and civilians into Darfur by the end of the year, but the State Department says only 20 civilians have been deployed.

Signon San Diego

As long as the UN focuses on achieving "peace," there will be no peace. War is the only sure way to peace, when you have beaten the stuffings out of your opponent, and has no more will to fight.