UN readies experts, equipment for AU in Darfur

Sept 22, 2006 (UNITED NATIONS) — The United Nations said on Friday it would reinforce African troops in Darfur with 100 personnel to run communications and other equipment while Arab nations promised to contribute funds to the operation.

The African Union force of some 7,000 troops and monitors has agreed to stay until year’s end to help stop atrocities in Sudan’s western region but has been unable to stop the violence that has driven 2.5 million people from their homes and left an estimated 200,000 dead since 2003.

Short of equipment, funds and soldiers, the African Union is in favor of turning over control of the peacekeepers to the United Nations but Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has refused, saying it would only divide and weaken Sudan.

Without Khartoum’s permission, no nation will send troops to Darfur and risk a battle with the Sudanese military.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the United Nations would move 100 personnel, including military officers, to Darfur in the next few weeks to man communications and other equipment for the African Union in anticipation of an eventual transition to a U.N. force.

Also on Friday, the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution extending for two weeks, until Oct. 8, the U.N. mission in Sudan, which has some 10,000 peacekeepers in southern Sudan to monitor a peace agreement there.

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said the short rollover “would give us more time to build up momentum and pressure on the government in Khartoum to accept the inevitability — that there is going to be a U.N. peacekeeping force.”

But Amr Moussa, the Egyptian secretary-general of the Arab League, which has the ear of Sudan, did not express outright support for a U.N. force. He did say Arab countries had pledged to give money to the African Union.

The African Union’s decision on Wednesday to extend its operation for three months to Dec. 31 noted that Sudan agreed the force could be beefed up from outside of Africa.

Sudan’s Bashir said earlier this did not mean non-African foot soldiers but Moussa told reporters on Friday he hoped Sudan might be persuaded to allow additional troops, depending on ongoing talks over the next three months.

Moussa said Arab nations, who previously promised but did not contribute money to the African Union, would now do so because of the African Union’s decision. At the moment NATO provides airlift support for the AU.

“Now we have a force that was extended for three months. it is our responsibility to contribute to that,” Moussa said.

But he said that much of the news from Darfur had been exaggerated, a charge Bashir has frequently made. “The problem is there but not all what you hear and not all the information circulated has been accurate,” Moussa said.

Pressure from the United States and other Western nations has not convinced Bashir of the need for a U.N. force, particularly after the Security Council authorized the United Nations to organize up to 22,500 troops and police for Darfur.

Instead nations are hoping for persuasion from Arab nations, who have largely supported Sudan, and China, Sudan’s largest exporter of oil, which supports a U.N. force but is against sanctions or other actions against Khartoum.

(Reuters)