China, Russia reject calls for freeze on UN pullout from Sudan

China and Russia on Friday rejected calls from European and African countries to freeze planned shutdown of a peacekeeping mission to Sudan's Darfur region. Britain, France, Germany and African countries on Security Council told group that decision on closing joint UN-African Union mission should be put on hold while Sudan is engulfed in crisis. council is scheduled to vote on mandate of mission, kwn as UNAMID, on June 27.

" situation has evolved, situation is t same in center, and we cant proceed as if thing has happened," said South Africa's Ambassor Jerry Matjila.

 Russia and China, however, said drawdown must continue as planned with a view to end operations in 2020.

" Sudanese government has capacity to maintain peace and security in Darfur on its own," said China's Deputy Ambassor Wu Haitao.
 

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China, Sudan's major tring partner, has long supported Khartoum's view that conflict in Darfur was winding down and that peacekeepers were longer needed. After a series of phased drawdowns, about 7,200 troops and police remain in Darfur from 16,000 deployed at height of conflict. More than 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced in violence, according to United Nations. Russian Deputy Ambassor Dmitry Polyanskiy said council was right to pull out peacekeepers and warned against any "outside lecturing" to Khartoum.

Sudan has been led by a military council since generals ousted Omar al-Bashir on April 11 after months of nationwide protests against his three-dece rule. Protesters remained encamped outside military hequarters in Khartoum for weeks afterwards demanding civilian rule, until a June 3 crackdown that left scores de. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have said instability has an impact on Darfur and that peacekeepers should remain. UN human rights official Andrew Gilmour said re have been increased reports of killings, abduction and sexual violence in Darfur in recent months.

Over past two months, 47 people have been killed in Darfur, he said. Sudan's military rulers have issued a decree ordering UNAMID to hand over all of its camps in Darfur to Rapid Support Forces, which led crackdown on protesters. But UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said plans to turn over camps to Sudanese forces as part of drawdown have been suspended.

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