US rallies nations to back drive for UN force in Darfur

Sept 23, 2006 (NEW YORK) — Warning that “time is running out” to halt a resurgence of violence in Darfur, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sought to build international pressure on Sudan to let UN peacekeepers into the war-torn region.

“The violence in Darfur must end, and it must end now,” Rice told a special ministerial meeting of two dozen nations plus the European Union and the United Nations on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

The meeting notably discussed sending one or more delegations to Khartoum in an effort to convince President Omar al-Beshir to drop his opposition to deployment of the UN force, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

“There was a discussion in the ministerial meeting about the desire to have a delegation to go to Khartoum to press upon them the importance of working together with the international community,” he said.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said a separate meeting of US and European Union foreign ministers also discussed sending a high-level delegation to Khartoum.

The ministers “considered how to organize a ministerial mission with several participants” to Khartoum, he said, without elaborating on who would take part in the trip.

The Security Council adopted a resolution last month demanding the deployment of some 20,000 peacekeepers to end more than three years of violence sparked by a revolt among Darfur’s mostly black African population.

Much of the violence has been carried out by Arab militia, known as the Janjaweed, which are armed and funded by the Khartoum government.

Beshir reaffirmed at the UN this week his refusal to authorise the UN deployment, which would replace an under-funded African Union force of 7,000 that has failed to halt the violence.

Rice said Friday that government forces had recently launched a new offensive against rebels in Darfur and that the fighting had cut humanitarian aid to hundreds of thousands of displaced persons.

“Time is running out,” Rice told the meeting. “The violence in Darfur is not subsiding, it is getting worse.”

Rice reiterated a statement made Tuesday by President George W. Bush that if Sudan does not quickly approve the deployment of the peacekeeping force, “the United Nations must find a way to act” without Sudan’s consent.

She said several representatives at Friday’s meeting acknowledged the possible use of measures to take if Sudan refuses to budge.

“There was a very clear indication by several speakers today that there are other measures at the disposal of the international community should we not be able to get the agreement of Sudan,” she said.

But other US officials said the deployment of peacekeepers without Sudan’s consent — a possibility repeatedly raised by the United States — was not discussed on Friday and the emphasis was rather on incentives that could draw Beshir’s government into the process.

“We are considering a diplomatic solution and if that does not work, we will take another approach,” said Andrew Natsios, a former head of the US Agency for International Development who was appointed by Bush on Tuesday to be the US special envoy for Darfur.

A defiant Beshir argued this week at the United Nations that the AU force now in Darfur was sufficient to deal with the violence and accused the international community of backing a “Zionist” plot “to dismember Sudan” and plunder its abundant resources, particularly its oil reserves.

But Natsios said that despite such public statements, “we’re getting signals” in private of possible flexibility from Khartoum.

The African Union this week agreed to extend the mandate for its mission in Darfur to the end of the year and Friday’s meeting discussed ways to strengthen the force with logistical and other support pending an eventual UN deployment,Natsios said.

The United States is at the same time planning to organize a series of informal meetings of potential troop contributors to the UN mission, to be held in parallel with diplomatic efforts to gain Khartoum’s consent for the force, he said.

(AFP/ST)