US government does not intend to continue insisting on stationing of UN peace-keeping force in the west of Sudan

The US government is faced with further loss of its credibility in matters of human rights in the opinion of the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV), if it does not continue to insist on the stationing of a UN peace-keeping force in Darfur. "Genocide is not a harmless crime and should not be used for tactical considerations in the election", criticised the GfbV Africa expert, Ulrich Delius, on Friday in Göttingen. "Any signs of softening up in the position hitherto maintained by Washington would be not only a blow in the face for the 400,000 victims of this genocide, but also an encouragement to /he Sudanese leadership to continue their campaign of destruction."

In an attempt to book a rapid foreign affairs "success" in the Darfur matter the US President, George Bush, is considering according to American press reports agreeing to an increase in the size of the African Union (AU) force already stationed in Darfur.

In the view of the GfbV however any softening up of the pressure from the international community will be seen by Khartum as acknowledgement of its uncompromising position and that it pays off to ignore stubbornly any international protests. The latest dreadful reports from Darfur gave rise to a great wave of protest in the USA calling for rapid assistance for the victims of genocide.

"It is fatal if the AU force is misused again as a cover-up for the inactivity of the international community ", said Delius. An increase in the number of AU soldiers is still no guarantee that the civilian population will in future be afforded more protection. For these are often demoralised, badly paid and the organisation is miserable, so that their effectiveness is extremely limited. Although they have been in Darfur for two and a half years they have not managed to provide any real protection for the civilian population. In countless cases the AU soldiers have just looked on without taking any action while severe violations of human rights were taking place.

In the spring of 2006 the US government for reasons of domestic politics exercised massive pressure on the conflict parties. The intention was to make quite sure that a peace agreement was signed for Darfur. The GfbV criticised that this had serious consequences .The agreement was so ill prepared that many resistance groups in Darfur did not sign. Since then violence in the west of Sudan has markedly increased.