I have no idea why the UN security council and the U.S. ever trusted Sudan's brutal military dictator Omar al-Bashir in the first place. He should have been arrested for his heinous crimes against humanity being that he has already been convicted of such by the International Criminal Court (ICC). He ordered over 400,000 tribal African native men, women and children to be slaughtered, raped and villages burned down. Would you trust a heartless man after knowing his history?! Most especially a souless person who has absolutely NO REMORSE for his actions and denies these atrocities ever happened.
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AFP news
written by Staff
Friday June 3, 2011
UNITED NATIONS — The UN Security Council demanded Friday that Sudan withdraw troops from Abyei and stop looting and attacks in the region disputed with rival southern Sudan.
Khartoum government troops overran Abyei, on the frontier with southern Sudan, on May 21 and razed much of the main town. The United Nations estimates that at least 60,000 people have fled the region.
A statement from the 15-nation Security Council called Sudan's military operations in Abyei a "serious violation" of a 2005 peace accord that ended two decades of civil war with the south in which two million people died.
Abyei has become a new source of tension as the south heads toward a formal proclamation of independence on July 9.
"The council demands that the government of Sudan withdraw immediately from the Abyei area. The council further demands the immediate withdrawal of all military elements from Abyei," said the statement.
"The council calls on the Sudanese Armed Forces to ensure an immediate halt to all looting, burning and illegal resettlement."
Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir has already rejected calls by the United States and the European Union pull his troops out of Abyei. Russia, China and three African nations joined the western powers in backing the Security Council statement, however.
Sudan has sacked the civilian administrator who came from the south and put an army brigadier in charge of Abyei.
The dispute over Abyei has been mounting for months but boiled over when forces from the south shot at a convoy carrying northern troops and UN peacekeepers on May 19.
The UN Council and the United States criticized the south's forces for that attack but international anger is now focused on the Khartoum government, which has also ordered UN peacekeepers to leave the north when the current UN mission mandate ends on July 8.
UN food stores and other facilities in Abyei have since been ransacked and looted.
"The Security Council strongly condemns the government of Sudan?s taking and continued maintenance of military control over the Abyei Area and the resulting displacement of tens of thousands of residents," it said, vowing to hold accountable all those responsible for international law violations. Sudan's president is already wanted by the International Criminal Court for genocide and war crimes.
Most of those who have fled Abyei are ethnic Ngok Dinka from the south. Misseriya nomads from the north who each year use Abyei to graze their herds are said to have moved in with the Sudanese troops.
The Council also expressed "grave concern following the reports about the unusual, sudden influx of thousands of Misseriya into Abyei town and its environs that could force significant changes in the ethnic composition of the area."
The UN powers called for a negotiated settlement between the north and south, calling on leaders from both sides to cooperate with African Union efforts to reach a security accord on Abyei under which troops from the north and south withdraw.
The Security Council said UN peacekeepers should remain in Abyei after the current mandate ends in July to patrol the tense border.
It also expressed "deep concern" over tensions in Sudan's Blue Nile and Southern Kordofan states, also near the frontier with the south. The states have strong links to the south but also provide nearly all the oil pumped out north of the frontier.
"The council calls on both parties to work to reduce tensions and promote calm in this sensitive region," said the statement.
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