US Rice urges Security Council to back international force in Darfur
May 9, 2006 (UNITED NATIONS) — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged the Security Council to beef up the beleaguered African Union force in Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur region and appealed for world support to end the humanitarian crisis there.
Addressing a special ministerial session of the 15-member council, the US chief diplomat hailed last week’s inter-Sudanese peace accord signed between Khartoum and the main Darfur rebel group in Abuja, Nigeria as “an historic opportunity for the people of Darfur to secure real peace”.
“The United States urges the Security Council to quickly pass the resolution we circulated yesterday.”
The US move came three days after Khartoum and the main rebel group in Darfur signed a peace pact to end three years of fighting in the arid region of western Sudan that Washington says has left some 200,000 people dead.
The US text would also call on Khartoum to cooperate fully and allow a UN assessment team to travel to the vast, western Sudanese region to pave the way for deploying a UN force to eventually take over peacekeeping from cash-strapped the African Union.
It would expand the mandate of the 10,100-strong UN mission (UNMIS) currently deployed in southern Sudan to include support for the Abuja accord and authorize the UN force to provide logistical support” to the 7,000-strong AU force in Darfur.
US officials, who have branded the bloodshed genocide, said their aim was to transform the beleaguered 7,000-strong AU contingent in Darfur into a UN force with double the manpower and increased NATO logistical support.
Rice also underscored the need to address the humanitarian challenge in Darfur, saying: “I call upon all nations to do their part to help the World Food Program feed and care for the people of Darfur.”
She said her government plan to attend a Dutch-hosted conference on development and reconstruction in Darfur and urged others to do so as well.
Opening the council meeting, UN chief Kofi Annan deplored that significant rebel leaders had not yet signed the Abuja deal, said: “we must do whatever we can to convince them to choose peace over conflict”.
“Next, we must do everything in our power to ensure that those who have signed the agreement actually implement it on the ground,” he added.
The AU-brokered Abuja accord was signed last Friday by Khartoum and the main faction of the Sudanese Liberation Movement, led by Minna Minnawi.
Another rebel group, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), and a smaller faction of the divided SLM, led by Abdelwahid al-Nur, refused to sign it.
But Tuesday the accord appeared threatened as as the top adviser to the leader of the SLM faction that signed up to it urged the UN to freeze its implementation.
In a letter addressed to the UN Secretary General, adviser Ibrahim Ahmed Ibrahim said SLM chairman Minni Minnawi had been pressured into signing an “incomplete agreement” that would likely fail to solve the crisis.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric however said “no letter has yet been received”.
The council was expected to adopt a non-binding statement welcoming the Abuja accord and calling on the AU and the United Nations to convene a pledging conference without delay to support the peace process.
Annan meanwhile also appealed for additional resources for the cash-strapped AU force in Darfur, saying donors should not wait for a pledging conference planned for early June in Brussels to contribute funds.
Monday, US President George W. Bush also urged Congress to speed approval of 225 million dollars in food aid for Sudan submitted in a supplementary budget request earlier this year.
Also attending Tuesday’s council session were the foreign ministers of Russia, Britain, France, China, and Congo, which presides the 15-member council for May.
(ST)