Sudanese refugees from Darfur (AFP)

ADDIS ABABA, August 13 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Rwanda will begin sending dozens of troops to Sudan's western region of Darfur Sunday, August 15, becoming the first foreign force deployed in the restive region as several African countries said they await the African Union’s go-ahead.

Meanwhile, Arab refugees of Darfur complained that they have been so demonized like their African peers and that their own suffering is being ignored by the international community.

The Netherlands will airlift 154 Rwandan soldiers to El-Fasher, the capital of northern Darfur state, reported Agence France-Presse Friday, August 13.

From there they will be sent to other parts of the troubled region, said Col. Patrick Karegeya, spokesman for the Rwandan Defense Forces.

There was no official response yet from the Sudanese government which has repeatedly made it clear it was against sending foreign troops as peacemakers in Darfur .

The troops were originally intended to protect unarmed AU military observers monitoring the cease-fire between Sudanese government troops and rebel factions in the region, Karegeya had said Tuesday.

However, their mandate was amended to allow the 15 Rwandan officers and 139 troops “to protect the civilians when it is established that they are in danger”, Karegeya said.

“We wouldn't want to go there as soldiers and find ourselves helpless,” Karegeya said. “Rwanda is taking this position after learning from the 1994 genocide.”

A missile attack on then Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana’s aircraft on April 6, 1994, over Kigali that triggered 100 days of slaughter of minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus by Hutu soldiers and extremist militias.

According to UN figures, some 800,000 people, mostly members of the Tutsi ethnic minority, were killed.

AU Go-Ahead

Several African countries have indicated their willingness to send troops to Darfur provided they are requested by the African Union, an official of the pan-African organisation said Thursday, August 12.

“Tanzania, Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Senegal and Mali are among countries which have indicated their willingness to contribute troops to serve as peacekeepers under the aegis of the African Union,” Assane Ba, in charge of communication at the Peace and Security Council Department of the pan-African body, told Reuters news agency.

“These countries are ready to contribute troops; they are only awaiting an official request from the African Union.”

The 53-member African Union has said it wants to boost the number of troops to Darfur to 2,000 and broaden the original mandate of the AU force to include a peacekeeping role as well as protecting ceasefire observers.

However, that plan awaits approval by the chairman of the Peace and Security Council, the AU's security body, and no agreement has been reached with Sudan over deployment of the larger force.

Sudan has said it has no problem with African ceasefire observers or African troops to protect the observers, but that peacekeeping is its own responsibility.

The UNSC threatened Sudan on July 31 with punitive measures if it failed to rein in the Arab militias within one month.

The United Nations has labeled the 16-month-old conflict as the world's worst current humanitarian crisis, amid mixed reports putting the number of people killed at 10,000 to 50,000 and over one million reportedly forced to flee their homes.

But Dr. Hussein Gezairy, Regional Director of World Health Organization’s Eastern Mediterranean Region, told IslamOnline.net Thursday, July 29, that the situation in the restive area did not amount to genocide or ethnic cleansing as claimed.

The European Union said no evidence was found on genocide taking place in the Sudan's western region of Darfur , though killings were committed on a wide scale in the troubled area.

Arab Refugees

On the humanitarian ground, the Arab refugees of Darfur complained that they also suffered greatly from the reportedly marauding and looting offensives committed by “murderous” African tribesmen.

Craving for attention, they said that they have been attacked, driven from their homes and abandoned to face pending epidemics of cholera, malaria and hepatitis, reported Britain’s daily the Independent.

They say their persecutors are African tribes in league with the rebel Sudan Liberation Army, fearing that their country will be just another Iraq.

“The foreigners blame us for everything. But I realize what is going on. The Americans and the British want to use this as an excuse to occupy our country, just as they have done in Iraq,” Asif Omar Sayeed, a 23-year-old from the Arab Targim tribe, told the mass-circulation paper.

“Like Iraq, we have oil. What has happened made me realize that as a true Muslim I must fight for my country when the foreigners come.”

Influential leaders of the US evangelical organizations had signed a letter asking President George W. Bush Wednesday to consider a military action  against Sudan.

On Monday, August 2, British daily the Guardian reported that British Prime Minister Tony Blair is making the case for a “colonial war” against Sudan because of its growing oil reserves, as there are no signs of highly-touted claims of genocide in the Arab country.