As Salaam, Sudan – Amid warnings to be vigilant for gunmen in hiding, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson got a firsthand look Tuesday at the people of Darfur, crammed into camps to escape the violence that has driven them from their homes.
Richardson visited people living in makeshift homes of millet straw and brick – just 2 miles from the headquarters of the African Union force expected to protect them. But even the commander of those troops acknowledged they lack the numbers to be effective.
“The force is too small to do the job,” Maj. Gen. Luke Aprezi told Richardson from his office where red marks on a Darfur map indicated recent attacks. “We need more troops on the ground.”
One of the chief goals of Richardson’s four-day visit to Sudan is to persuade President Omar al-Bashir to allow U.N. peacekeepers to help the beleaguered African Union troops. Bashir has resisted international pressure, but Richardson hopes to draw on a decade-old relationship with the elusive African leader to persuade him otherwise.
The two are scheduled to meet today for the second time in three days, and Richardson told the people he met in Darfur he would use the meeting to try to help them.
Any progress could be a boost to Richardson’s own presidential prospects as the Democrat decides in the coming days whether he will run in 2008.
For nearly four years, Sudanese troops and the Arab janjaweed militias have been fighting Darfur’s ethnic African rebels, who revolted against what they saw as marginalization by Khartoum.
U.N. and African Union officials have accused the government of arming the janjaweed and coordinating attacks with them.
