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UN ready to float plan for “hybrid” Darfur force

Nov 13, 2006 (UNITED NATIONS) — Secretary-General Kofi Annan intends to float a “hybrid” African Union-U.N. force for Darfur in talks with Sudanese officials and invited major powers to take part, the United Nations said on Monday.

Sudan has been adamantly opposed to a U.N. force, authorized by the U.N. Security Council so the United Nations is considering alternatives to get a larger and better-funded peacekeeping force that would be acceptable to Khartoum.

The African Union is holding a series of meetings in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa this week on its under-financed 7,000-member force in Darfur that has been unable to stop the violence, which has thrown some 2.5 million people out of their homes over the past three years.

“The intent is to discuss ways in which to address the situation and move the peace process forward decisively,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

As a case in point, an African Union official reported from Darfur on Monday that up to 30 villagers were killed and 40 wounded on Saturday when armed men riding horses and camels attacked a village in Darfur, in the Sudan’s west.

The attackers are suspected to be janjaweed, pro-government militia, who have killed, raped and plundered non-Arab villagers. Some 200,000 people are estimated to have died since rebels challenged the government in early 2003.

Since the U.N. Security Council has to approve any arrangement, Annan asked the foreign ministers of the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China to send high-level envoys to a meeting in Addis Ababa, scheduled for Thursday, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

Senior officials from Egypt, Gabon, Egypt, the League of Arab States and the European Union as well as the Congo Republic, which holds the AU presidency, are also expected to attend, the spokesman added.

Annan issued the invitations as the U.N. Security Council on Friday canceled plans to send a British-led delegation to another meeting on the Darfur crisis on Monday in Addis Ababa, unable to agree what the delegation could discuss and how their visit would mesh with Annan’s trip.

AFRICAN CHARACTER

In a paper ahead of the meeting, Annan called for a phased approach to a strengthening of the existing AU force, including economic support for Sudan.

Hedi Annabi, an assistant secretary-general for peace-keeping operations, now in Addis, said Sudan had agreed to initial support for the Darfur operation, including several hundred U.N. military, police and civilian personnel, worth some $77 million.

But this enhancement is to strengthen the Africa Union without any U.N. command. Sudan still has to agree to a much larger AU-UN operation reporting to both bodies.

Such a hybrid force would have a “predominantly African character” but be adequately funded and equipped to better protect Darfur’s civilian population and refugee camps, according to the paper.

In his monthly report, released on Monday, Annan said he was “gravely concerned” about the Sudan government attempt to find a military solution to the crisis by sending thousands of soldiers to Darfur in violation of a faltering May peace agreement between the government and one rebel group.

“I particularly deplore the use of aerial bombardment by government forces, which fails to distinguish civilians from combatants,” Annan wrote about developments in September.

Saturday’s brutal attack was in Sirba, about 45 km (30 miles) north of El Geneina, capital of West Darfur state and close to the Sudan-Chad border, the AU official said.

Bahr Idriss Abu Garda, a leader of the rebel National Redemption Front, told Reuters by telephone that the Sudanese army took part with the janjaweed in the attack on Sirba and a similar attack in the nearby Abu Surouj area.

But an army spokesperson said government forces were not involved in any operations in the Sirba area and did not even have a large troop presence there.

The conflict broke out in 2003 when local people, mostly non-Arab, took up arms to fight for a greater share in power and resources.

Since then, the violence has spilled across the border to neighboring Central African Republic and Chad, which on Monday declared a state of emergency in the capital N’Djamena and some eastern areas on the Sudanese border.

Sudan and Chad support each other’s rebels, according to U.N. relief officials. Both Chad and Central African Republic have called for the deployment of international troops to secure their borders.

(Reuters)

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