Darfur displaced say joint UN-AU force needed now

OTASH CAMP, Sudan, Aug 18 (Reuters) Darfuris who fled their homes during a 4-1/2 year revolt are urging a joint UN-African Union force to deploy rapidly to protect them from attacks and allow their safe return to their villages.

After months of talks, threats and negotiations, Khartoum finally agreed to the 26,000-strong force, which will incorporate a struggling 7,000 AU force that has failed to stem the Darfur violence.

The joint mission is expected to fully deploy by next year, but Darfuris say that is too late. ''We want them to come immediately,'' said Yahya Osman.

He lost everything when he fled his village west of Nyala town in South Darfur to Otash camp, where some 62,000 people have sought refuge from fled rape, looting and killing. But they say violence continues even there.

''Just yesterday my brother went out to get food for his children and he was abducted,'' said Adam Mohammed Ahmed.

''There are shootings and looting going on in the camp and nobody, including the AU troops, responds to these incidents.'' Ahmed came to Otash almost four years ago following an attack on his village by militia, known locally as Janjaweed, who killed 24 men and six women.

''They burnt down our homes, forcing us to flee,'' he said.

The head of the joint mission, Rodolphe Adada, visited Otash and met some 100 tribal leaders and camp residents yesterday.

''The Janjaweed abducted 17 members of my family 17 days ago,'' one man told Adada, asking the diplomat to help.

''We have suffered enough. We want peace of mind and this will be possible only if the international forces come,'' said another camp resident Ahmed Hirs.

SUDANESE CONSENT A senior Sudanese army general said today no non-African troops could deploy without Sudanese consent.

''There is no possibility for that happening without consultation with Sudan,'' Majzoub Rahma, a senior general in Sudan's army told Reuters following a joint news conference with Sudan's defence minister.

Rahma said the Darfur peacekeeping force ''has to be an African force,'' adding the only non-African participants planned so far were Egypt, China, Pakistan, and Jordan. ''They are friends,'' he added.

Rahma said other non-African forces would only be needed ''if the AU could not meet the required forces'', adding that even then nothing could be implemented without Sudan's consent.

Expectations for the new force are high among the displaced.

''We want them to help us get our rights, compensation and to secure our villages,'' said Osman.

The government has declared Darfur safe for people to return home and has said some 45 per cent of those in the camps have gone back, a figure UN agencies say they cannot verify.

''They gave them money to persuade them to return. Some people went and then came back because of lack of security,'' said Osman.

International experts say an estimated 200,000 people have died in the Darfur conflict, which has displaced some 2.5 million people from their homes. Khartoum says only 9,000 people have died in the violence.

REUTERS SYU PM2150