by Wang Fengfeng, Li Dawei

    ADDIS ABABA, July 5 (Xinhuanet) -- An African Union Peace and Security Council official said here Monday that the regional bloc is to send a protection force to the Darfur region in western Sudan, and they are considering the number of 300.

    However, the Sudanese representative didn't attend the council's meetings, and their position on the protection force is still in doubt.

    Director of the AU Peace and Security Council Sam Ibok, who briefed reporters on the eve of the AU's annual summit to be held on Tuesday, said the council held unusually long session on Sunday,deliberating the Darfur crisis, and AU Commission chief Alpha Konare's recent visit to Chad's N'djamena, where he sat down with Sudanese parties involved in the Darfur crisis and talked about peace.

    The council did more than talking. Ibok said they've decided to send armed soldiers in the name of protection force to the troubled region "as soon as possible," to guard the AU observers already on ground in Darfur, and the number of soldiers are still under consideration, probably 300.

    "We are working towards a deployment of what we call a protection force," Ibok said, "that protection force is to go in and create some sort of confidence, so that the refugees, the internally displaced can return, because if you don't have the confidence that the region has been secured, they will not be ableto return."

    According to numerous reports and accounts of human rights and humanitarian groups, Darfur's pro-government Arab militia have adopted a scorched land policy and carried out a campaign described as "bordering ethnic cleansing."

    The well-armed, horse or camel riding militia called the Janjaweed have killed at least 10,000 indigenous and chased another one million out of their homes since the revolt against the Khartoum government broke out in February 2003.

    Terrified by the Janjaweed, Darfur refugees went all the way toavoid been killed or raped "systematically," as the human rights group called it.

    Their destinations include deserts inside the neighboring Chad,described by one report as "one of the most inhospitable areas on Earth."

    Nearly 200,000 Sudanese refugees now live in camps in Chad, andthe ones who live in camps inside the Darfur region were afraid toventure out for fear of the Janjaweed.

    Even the ones inside Chad were threatened by the militia, whichwas accused of crossing the border and mounting attacks. Dire as the situations of the refugees are, the protection force's main mission is to ensure the safety of the AU monitors and observers, scattered in five areas of Darfur and the refugee camps inside theterritory of Chad.

    "We are not sending a peacekeeping force.. I think that's left to the United Nations," Ibok said, "what we are trying to do is toconsolidate the programs of deployment we have, the deployment of peace observers and monitors we have inside the area of Darfur itself."

    Indeed, in a vast area like the Darfur region of the Sudan, Africa's biggest country, the number of that force is too small toprovide real protection to the one million people who are supposedto return their villages, a large number of which in ruins.

    "The numbers we are still discussing.. initially we are lookingat a protection force about 300," Ibok said, noting that the AU has approached Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania and Botswana for the deployment, and Nigeria and Rwanda have already given a green light, and they are "standing by and they are ready to go."

    However, the one green light crucial to the deployment the AU didn't get. It is the green light from Khartoum. "The Sudan does not participate in the council's deliberation on Darfur, theyare always excused from the meeting," Ibok said, but noting that the AU is confident about Khartoum's consent to the deployment.

    "We are engaging the Sudanese government.. they are becoming more responsive to that topic," Ibok said, without further elaboration.

    But is it wishful thinking? Both Sudanese opposition and UnitedStates Secretary of State Colin Powell have called on the United Nations to deploy peacekeepers to the region, indicating the lawlessness of the area.

    Ibok himself acknowledged that the both the Sudanese governmentand the opposition are unable to provide real protection to even the AU observers, not to mention the refugees.

    In this regard, 300 AU soldiers are more acceptable to Khartoum than the proposed UN peacekeepers. Yet one question remains: are the 300 soldiers enough for Darfur?

    "Numbers are irrelevant," Ibok said, noting the AU is looking in political resolution to the Darfur crisis.

    "We can call for the deployment of the military, but the problem in Darfur will not go away.. it will go away once we resolved the political problems," he said.

    The AU has made its move, and now it is up to the Khartoum government to decide. However, even if the Sudanese government gives a go-ahead, whether the tiny force can provide the "confidence building" the AU envisaged still remains to be seen. Enditem