Mick Hartley

At its summit in Addis Ababa on January 29-30th, the African Union will decide which country will hold the chair for 2007. Last year Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir was by-passed, but he’s bidding for the chairmanship again this year. Human Rights First are campaigning against his election:

Electing Sudan to chair the African Union would be like putting the fox in charge of the hen house….

If President Omar-al-Bashir is elected chair of the A.U., he will control the A.U. peacekeeping forces, the only security that currently exists for many Darfuris.

About 7000 A.U. peacekeepers are all that protect innocent civilians from brutal attacks carried out predominantly by government forces and their militias. President Bashir has to date refused to allow United Nations peacekeeping forces to replace the A.U. forces, and has consistently dodged attempts by the international community to resolve the impasse through the deployment of a hybrid joint A.U. and U.N. force.

Bashir, meanwhile, has admitted that his government has been bombing Darfur, despite earlier denials, in violation of cease-fire agreements. They had no choice, apparently:

Rebel commanders in northern Darfur said on Monday that government aircraft had hit three villages over the weekend – claims the Sudanese government strongly denied.

But in an exclusive BBC interview broadcast on Wednesday, President Bashir confirmed his troops had carried out the bombardments.

He said the government had no option but to strike as 80% of attacks on civilians in the region were carried out by rebels groups, undermining security.