Sudan Still Opposed to U.N. Peacekeepers 
The Associated Press
June 30, 2006
The New York Times
Original Source: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Sudan-UN-Darfur.html

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) -- Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir said Thursday deploying United Nations peacekeepers in the conflict-wracked Darfur region would be the same as allowing foreign forces to occupy his country.
Al-Bashir reiterated his opposition days before the opening of the African Union summit Saturday in Gambia where U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said he would try to convince the Sudanese leader otherwise.
''Bringing U.N. forces to Darfur is totally rejected by all Sudanese people,'' al-Bashir told tens of thousands of members of his National Congress Party gathered in Khartoum's Green Square to celebrate the anniversary of the 1989 military coup that brought him to power.
''I repeat here, again, that I would prefer to be the leader of the resistance in Darfur than president of an occupied country,'' the president said in the speech that state television broadcast live. ''Life will return to Darfur soon without the intervention of U.N. or other forces,'' he said to cheers of ''Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, go ahead we are behind you.''
The AU has said it cannot handle long-term peacekeeping in Darfur and wants its 7,000-strong force replaced by better-equipped and better-funded U.N. peacekeepers.
The Darfur conflict began in early 2003 when members of ethnic African tribes rose in revolt against the Khartoum government. Sudan's government is accused of responding by unleashing Arab militias known as the janjaweed who have been blamed for the worst atrocities. Khartoum denies any involvement, but has committed to disarm the janjaweed under the Darfur Peace Agreement signed May 5 with the main rebel group in the region.
Nearly 200,000 people have died since the conflict began and some 2 million have been rendered homeless.