“They speak about a conspiracy against the Arab and Islamic world.” Unfortunately, they do not speak of genocide, or the need to prevent it. “Envoy to Sudan Reports Threats: U.N.’s Jan Pronk says Al Qaeda has warned him and non-African troops who might go to Darfur,” from the Los Angeles Times, with thanks to DFS:
UNITED NATIONS “” The world body’s top envoy to Sudan said Tuesday that Al Qaeda has threatened him and any peacekeeping troops deployed there from outside Africa, following the Sudanese government’s rejection of a proposed U.N. force meant to protect civilians in the nation’s Darfur region.
U.N. special envoy Jan Pronk said the government in Khartoum deeply distrusts foreign intervention in its nation and fears that the presence of a United Nations or NATO force would be the beginning of a foreign occupation such as those that took place in Afghanistan and Iraq….
Pronk returned to the U.N. on Tuesday and told reporters that there is an “atmosphere of fear and conspiracy” in Khartoum. “They speak about re-colonization, invasion and they speak about Iraq and Afghanistan “¦ and they speak about a conspiracy against the Arab and Islamic world,” he said.
The heated political climate in Khartoum has made negotiations over the next step difficult, Pronk said, describing intelligence that suggested that Al Qaeda terrorists were present in the Sudanese capital and had made death threats against him and any U.N. troops that might be deployed to the country.
Sudan’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Omar Manis, reiterated his government’s objections to the mission but questioned Pronk’s reports of Al Qaeda threats.
“I don’t know from where Mr. Pronk got this idea. Sudan is not Al Qaeda. We don’t speak for Al Qaeda,” he said.
Manis added that Khartoum prefers African troops to international soldiers, even if the existing force is absorbed by a U.N. mission.