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<p>BBC NEWS | Africa | Profile: Sudan's President Bashir Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir came to power in an Islamist-backed coup in 1989. Since then he has introduced elements of Sharia law which are opposed by ...</p> <p>Arab racism: 'We Want to Make a Light Baby' (washingtonpost.com) The New York-based organization Human Rights Watch said in a June 22 report that it investigated "the use of rape by both Janjaweed and Sudanese soldiers ...</p>

At the African Union Summit last month, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir promised U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan that he would formulate a plan for protecting civilians in Darfur. Mr. Annan received the plan this week. Bashir is proposing to deploy 10,500 Sudanese armed forces to Darfur. The Sudanese armed forces have often worked in tandem with the Janjaweed militia during Sudan’s genocidal campaign against African Darfurians—Bashir’s plan is for the fox to guard the hen house. Bashir first promised to protect civilians in Darfur by disarming the Janjaweed back in April 2004. In the intervening two-and-a-half years Bashir has made...

Blackwater USA, one of the major providers of security personnel in Iraq, has offered to provide a brigade of peacekeepers for any operation, anywhere in the world. In particular, Blackwater said that it could provide a brigade in a place like Darfur for much less money than it would cost NATO to provide the same number of troops. Blackwater is proposing providing peacekeepers, not conventional combat troops. This proposal is based on Blackwaters two years experience in Iraq, where it provides thousands of foreign and Iraqi security personnel. Blackwater hires former military personnel, especially those who have been in Special...

UNITED NATIONS, March 3 (Reuters) - The United Nations is asking the United States and other nations with big militaries to provide tactical air support for an ill-equipped African Union peacekeeping force in Sudan's Darfur region. With the security situation deteriorating on the ground, the AU force will need more international support in the coming months, even if its mission eventually is to be taken over by a U.N. force, Annan wrote U.S. Ambassador John Bolton in a Feb. 23 letter seen by Reuters on Friday. At the U.N. Security Council's request, Annan has begun planning for a shift from...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Secretary-General Kofi Annan intends to ask President George W. Bush on Monday what the United States can contribute to a mobile UN force to stop the killings, rape and pillaging in Sudan's Darfur region. The United States has offered military planners for the Darfur operation, which will arrive on Monday. Annan said Darfur's plight, which the United States has characterized as genocide, was too dire for rich nations to pay but not participate in the mission, which will increase the $5 billion spent on peacekeeping last year. "It is not going to be easy for the...

In recent years, China's rapid economic growth and increasing political clout have greatly accelerated the country's involvement on the African continent, especially in key oil-producing countries such as Sudan in East Africa. Analysts see China's activities in East Africa as a multi-layered approach by the government to secure partnerships for long-term economic gain and for advancing China's geopolitical ambitions. Four months ago, a large delegation of experts from the China National Petroleum Corporation traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, to meet the country's energy minister and to visit the headquarters of the National Oil Corporation of Kenya. The Kenyan oil company's managing...