SudanTribune: UN resolution greeted by Khartoum's new Darfur offensive (4 September 2006)
Civilians and humanitarian operations will not be protected except by National Islamic Front genocidaires On Thursday, August 31, 2006, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1706, "inviting" the National Islamic Front regime in Khartoum to allow a large and robust UN to enter Darfur with the primary goal of protecting acutely vulnerable civilians and humanitarians. This force (between 23,000 and 24,000 troops, police, and Formed Police Units) could at the very least begin to halt the accelerating slide toward cataclysmic human destruction, destruction that UN aid chief Jan Egeland warned the Security Council on August 28, 2006 could reach to hundreds of thousands of human deaths.
On Thursday, August 31, 2006, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1706, "inviting" the National Islamic Front regime in Khartoum to allow a large and robust UN to enter Darfur with the primary goal of protecting acutely vulnerable civilians and humanitarians. This force (between 23,000 and 24,000 troops, police, and Formed Police Units) could at the very least begin to halt the accelerating slide toward cataclysmic human destruction, destruction that UN aid chief Jan Egeland warned the Security Council on August 28, 2006 could reach to hundreds of thousands of human deaths.
This [ilitary operation launched by Sudan] is Khartoum's bluntest answer to the UN "invitation" to allow into Darfur a meaningful international peacekeeping force. To be sure, there have been public responses from Khartoum's genocidaires as well. In the words of the BBC, "the Sudanese government has vehemently rejected a UN Security Council resolution that would send a UN force to Sudan's Darfur area"; the BBC cites a report from the state-controlled SUNA news agency: "`The Sudanese people will not consent to any resolution that will violate its sovereignty'" (BBC [dateline: Khartoum], August 31, 2006). ... "Sudanese vice-president Ali Osman Taha vowed that the regime would maintain its opposition to a United Nations peacekeeping force for Darfur and hailed Hezbollah as a model of resistance, said reports on Friday [September 1, 2006]. Taha was quoted as saying: `We have options and plans for confronting the international intervention.'"
...
"Sudanese vice-president Ali Osman Taha vowed that the regime would maintain its opposition to a United Nations peacekeeping force for Darfur and hailed Hezbollah as a model of resistance, said reports on Friday [September 1, 2006]. Taha was quoted as saying: `We have options and plans for confronting the international intervention.'"
Wikipedia: Military of Sudan
The Sudan People's Armed Forces is a 60,000-member army supported by a small air force and navy. Irregular tribal and former rebel militias and Popular Defence Forces supplement the army's strength in the field. This is mixed force, having the additional duty of maintaining internal security. Some rebels currently fighting in the south are former army members. Sudan's military forces have historically been hampered by limited and outdated equipment. In the 1980s, the U.S. worked with the Sudanese Government to upgrade equipment with special emphasis on airlift capacity and logistics. All U.S. military assistance was terminated following the military coup of 1989. During the 1990s, periodic purges of the professional officer corps by the ruling Islamist regime has eroded command authority as well as war-fighting capabilities. Indeed, the Sudanese Government admits it is now incapable of carrying out its war aims against the SPLA and NDA without employing former rebel and Arab militias to fight in support of regular troops. Oil revenues have allowed the government to purchase modern weapons systems, including Hind helicopter gun ships, MiG-23 fighters, Antonov medium transport aircraft, mobile artillery pieces, and light assault weapons. Sudan now receives most of its military equipment from the People's Republic of China, Russia, and Libya. Military branches: Army, Navy, Air Force, Popular Defense Force Militia Military manpower - military age: 18 years of age Military manpower - availability: males age 15-49: 8,739,982 (2002 est.) Military manpower - fit for military service: males age 15-49: 5,380,917 (2002 est.) Military manpower - reaching military age annually: males: 398,294 (2002 est.) Military expenditures - dollar figure: $581 million (2001 est.) Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 2.5% (1999)
During the 1990s, periodic purges of the professional officer corps by the ruling Islamist regime has eroded command authority as well as war-fighting capabilities. Indeed, the Sudanese Government admits it is now incapable of carrying out its war aims against the SPLA and NDA without employing former rebel and Arab militias to fight in support of regular troops. Oil revenues have allowed the government to purchase modern weapons systems, including Hind helicopter gun ships, MiG-23 fighters, Antonov medium transport aircraft, mobile artillery pieces, and light assault weapons. Sudan now receives most of its military equipment from the People's Republic of China, Russia, and Libya.
Military branches: Army, Navy, Air Force, Popular Defense Force Militia
Military manpower - military age: 18 years of age
Military manpower - availability: males age 15-49: 8,739,982 (2002 est.)
Military manpower - fit for military service: males age 15-49: 5,380,917 (2002 est.)
Military manpower - reaching military age annually: males: 398,294 (2002 est.)
Military expenditures - dollar figure: $581 million (2001 est.)
Military expenditures - percent of GDP: 2.5% (1999)
Of course, then there's the little matter of insurgency.
I did read reports of the AU-forces that they have no defence against aerial attacks, no tactical aircraft and no air defence systems. The Sudanese bombard with whatever plane they can get in the air (their Hinds and fighters are mostly grounded due to several problems)sometimes throwing grenades from light cargo-planes. The Sudanese sometimes coordinate this with the relief-flights to the refugee camps to terrorise people when they are amassed for the food-distributions. With European troops busy in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libanon, DR-Congo and a few other places, our politicians will think twice before doing something. The struggle of man against tyranny is the struggle of memory against forgetting.(Kundera)
