US supports UN troops to Sudan’s Darfur
Jan 13, 2006 (WASHINGTON) — The United States supports augmenting African Union forces in Sudan’s western Darfur region with U.N. peacekeepers but has not offered its own troops for such a mission, U.S. officials said on Friday.
The African Union, which has about 7,000 peacekeepers trying to monitor a shaky cease-fire in Darfur, said on Friday it supported “in principle” handing over its mission in Darfur to U.N. peacekeepers because it was running out of money. A final decision would be taken before the end of March.
In addition, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Thursday the United Nations wanted the United States and European countries to help form a tough mobile force to stop the bloodshed, rape and plunder in troubled Darfur.
Jendayi Frazer, the U.S. assistant secretary of state in charge of African affairs, said Washington would support augmenting the African Union, or AU, force with U.N. peacekeepers but stopped short of pledging any U.S. troops.
“(We support) international troops augmenting AU forces and not replacing them. This is what we did in Liberia,” Frazer told reporters.
Sudan has said the presence of U.S. forces on its soil would be unwelcome.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack declined to comment directly on whether the United States was prepared to send troops but noted the United Nations had begun contingency planning for a handover from AU forces to U.N. peacekeepers.
“We will work with the U.N. Security Council and other international partners on this issue. Our concern here is to see that there is effective security in Darfur,” said McCormack.
The Darfur conflict began in February 2003 when rebels rose up against Khartoum, accusing the government of marginalizing the impoverished area.
The government in turn armed Arab militias to put down the rebellion, accused of conducting a campaign of rape, looting and murder. Tens of thousands of people have been killed.
Frazer stressed the main U.S. aim was to support AU forces in their job and to ensure they were well-funded, adding that Washington had so far given more than $170 million for the Darfur mission and had airlifted African troops there.
The State Department has been struggling to get money for AU troops and last month Congress rejected a personal appeal by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to provide $50 million for the AU mission in Darfur.
SUDAN AS CHAIR
Complicating the AU mission in Darfur, Sudan could be in line to assume the rotating chairmanship of the 53-nation AU at an upcoming Jan. 23-24 summit in Khartoum. Many nations fear such a move would sink the Darfur peace process.
Asked about Sudan taking over the AU presidency, Frazer said serious consultations were taking place about this across Africa.
“With the situation in Darfur, it obviously makes it very problematic, particularly if he (Sudan’s president) were to assume the presidency and the AU has a peacekeeping mission trying to stabilize Darfur. It may be a bit of a conflict of interest there,” said Frazer.
She added: “But I think that this is really an internal matter for the African Union at the summit level to address. And I think that they are in those consultations right now.”
Frazer said she also hoped the summit would try to resolve Sudan’s dispute with neighboring Chad, which accuses Khartoum of backing rebels seeking to overthrow President Idriss Deby.
Earlier this week, Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick made clear in a meeting with Chad’s foreign minister that the United States was very concerned about the conflict, which posed serious risks to refugees and displaced people.
(Reuters)