U.S. concerned about bombing of Darfur town

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States is "gravely concerned" about Sudanese bombing raids on a Darfur town where government forces and rebels have clashed recently, the U.S. envoy to the United Nations said on Tuesday.

U.N. officials have said that at least 30 people had died and thousands forced to flee in more than two weeks of fighting between Sudanese government troops, rebels from the Justice and Equality Movement and other fighters in and around the south Darfur settlement of Muhajiriya.

"The United States is gravely concerned by reports of intense aerial bombardment," U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice told reporters after a closed-door meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Darfur and other issues.

"The (U.N.) secretariat reported 28 bombs dropped just this morning in Muhajiriya," she said.

Rice said Sudanese forces were bombing the town even though the rebel forces had withdrawn to a distance of some 31-37 miles from Muhajiriya and proposed turning the area into a demilitarized zone where U.N.-African Union peacekeepers, known as UNAMID, could deploy to protect civilians.

"Instead, the bombardment continues and the government of Sudan has prevented UNAMID personnel from moving into the area to investigate, impeding the freedom of movement of these personnel which is a violation of the status of forces agreement between UNAMID and the government," she said.

A Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman rejected the Justice and Equality Movement's proposal to withdraw and allow UNAMID to deploy there.

Rice said she was worried the violence would escalate, adding that the council was working on the wording of a demand for a ceasefire and end to the bombing.

Japanese Ambassador Yuki Takasu, president of the council for February, told reporters that the situation in Darfur was "very volatile" and council members were opposed to any limitations on the movement of UNAMID peacekeepers.

Takasu added that there was a "lot of speculation" about whether the spike in violence in Darfur was tied to an expected decision from the International Criminal Court in The Hague on its prosecutor's request for an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for suspected war crimes in Darfur.

Diplomats in New York say the ICC judges will likely decide in favor of issuing the warrant and expect the decision to be announced later this month. U.N. officials worry that Bashir might retaliate by ordering UNAMID out of the country.

The rebels seized control of Muhajiriya, a strategic town 50 miles from the south Darfur capital of Nyala, in mid-January from troops loyal to Minni Arcua Minnawi, the only Darfur rebel leader to sign a peace deal with Khartoum.

U.N. officials say as many as 300,000 people have died and more than 2.5 million have been driven from their homes since mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms against Khartoum in 2003, accusing it of neglecting the development of the region.

Khartoum, which says 10,000 have died, accuses the Western media of exaggerating the conflict.

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)