AU defends embattled Darfur peace deal

KHARTOUM, June 26 (Reuters) The African Union has defended a Darfur peace deal signed by the Sudanese government and one of three rebel groups in May against critics who had said the agreement contains ''serious flaws''.

The International Crisis Group (ICG) has criticised the May 5 deal and said in a report released last week that the African Union-mediated agreement needed a robust UN peacekeeping force to avoid collapse in the remote region.

''The International Crisis Group 'Policy Briefing' on Darfur contains some serious errors of fact and interpretation, which are extremely unhelpful to the process of implementation,'' the AU said in a seven-page reply, seen by Reuters today.

Since the deal, the AU has come under attack in the camps which house 2.5 million displaced Darfuris, and their patrols have been obstructed by hostile armed factions who did not sign the deal or were not present at negotiations.

Key deadlines, including receiving the government's crucial plan to disarm proxy militias by June 22, have been missed with no repercussions.

The AU rejected the ICG analysis that the deal contains no guarantees for implementation.

''There are in fact no fewer than three levels of guarantees either built into the (deal) or surrounding it,'' it said, adding that US, European, senior UN officials and African presidents who signed the deal as witnesses were guarantees.

ICG said it stood by its analysis.

''The security situation continues to be extremely worrisome,'' said Dave Mozersky, ICG's Sudan researcher.

''Implementation of the (deal) is likely to be challenged by a combination of government unwillingness, rebel divisions and unwillingness of the international community to stand up for a sufficiently robust peacekeeping force,'' he added.

Tens of thousands have been killed in three years of rape, murder and pillage in Sudan's remote west, violence Washington calls genocide.

While Khartoum denies the charge, the International Criminal Court is investigating alleged war crimes in the region, the first case referred by the UN Security Council to the tribunal which is a separate body from the United Nations.

An ill-equipped 7,000-strong AU force is monitoring a widely ignored truce in Darfur.

The AU, fast running out of cash, has asked the UN to take over, but Khartoum has rejected the move. Sudan paints a picture of a Western invasion that would attract Islamic militants and create an Iraq-like quagmire in Darfur.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he would meet President Omar Hassan al-Bashir at an AU summit in Gambia this week to discuss Khartoum's rejection of the UN force, which he described as ''incomprehensible''.

REUTERS SHR RAI1637