By Andrew Heavens
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan's army rejected the appointmentof a British officer to an international peacekeeping force inDarfur on Thursday in a move that could strain relations withthe U.N. and the UK, a major donor.
A spokesman said Sudan's Armed Forces would not acceptBrigadier Patrick Davidson-Houston as chief of staff to theforce commander of the U.N./African Union mission in Darfur.
"The force is African, so how can the chief of staff beBritish? None of the forces are British," he told Reuters.
It was unclear how far the army's refusal was in line withthe final stance of Sudan's government, but the armed forcesare a substantial force in Sudanese politics and President OmarHassan al-Bashir comes from a military background.
A spokesman from the international force, UNAMID, saidofficials were still hoping to get the appointment accepted.
"At the moment we are aware that concerns have been raisedby the government," he said. "We are working to resolve these."
A final rejection by Sudan would be seen as a major snub tothe UK, which has sent several high-level delegations to Sudanin recent months and gave 84 million pounds in humanitarian aidin 2006-7.
Omar Daair, spokesman for the British Embassy in Khartoum,said the officer had already been in the post for a number ofmonths and had been selected for the job "openly and fairly".
"His employment and continued employment is a matter forUNAMID," he added. Brigadier Davidson-Houston, who served asthe commander of British Forces in Sierra Leone from 2002-3,was unavailable for comment.
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Sudan's armed forces spokesman said the full reasons forthe rejection had been spelled out by Sudan's Major GeneralMajdhub Rahama at a conference on Wednesday.
Sudanese daily Al-Sahafah on Thursday reported Rahama assaying a British chief of staff would provide an unwelcome"link" between UNAMID and European peacekeepers due to startwork in neighbouring Chad.
Another reason was that the UK had no peacekeepers on theground in Darfur, the London-based newspaper Al-Hayat reported.Khartoum has been increasingly sensitive about the involvementof non-African troops in the 26,000-strong peacekeeping force.
In November, Bashir said he would only accept Chinese andPakistani technical units already committed, and hespecifically rejected an offer of 400 army engineers fromSweden and Norway.
Many analysts have accused Khartoum of using thenationality of incoming UNAMID peacekeepers as an excuse tostall on the full implementation of the force. So far, only9,000 peacekeepers have been deployed.
Khartoum has strongly denied the accusation and pointed tothe delay caused by the failure of other countries to supplyUNAMID with helicopters and other vital equipment.
The force is supposed to bring peace to the western region,in which international experts estimate some 200,000 have diedand 2.5 million been driven from their homes in fighting sinceearly 2003, when mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms, accusingthe government of neglect. Khartoum disputes the figures.
(Editing by Michael Winfrey)