Beshir challenges Darfur peacekeeping deal- UN
March 9, 2007 (UNITED NATIONS) — Sudanese president Omar al-Beshir’s reply to a UN request to deploy UN peacekeepers in strife-torn Darfur “seems to challenge” an agreement reached last November, a UN spokeswoman said Friday.
Marie Okabe told a press briefing that Beshir’s four-page letter in reply to one sent by UN chief Ban Ki-moon last January was received Thursday along with a 14-page annex in Arabic.
“The letter itself contains some positive elements, including a strong expression of support for the joint African Union-UN efforts to re-energize the political process, and some assurances with regard to humanitarian assistance to the people of Darfur,” Ban’s deputy spokeswoman said.
“But it also contains some elements which seem to challenge the agreement reached last November in Addis Ababa and Abuja on peacekeeping in Darfur,” she added.
Okabe said the 14-page annex in Arabic was being translated and would be reviewed along with the letter itself, which was drafted in English.
“The secretary general will then consult with the Security Council on the next step,” she added.
In his letter, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, Beshir said that some aspects of Ban’s plan to send an initial force of 2,300 peacekeepers to Darfur to pave the way for a joint AU-UN force of more than 20,000 troops “need to be clarified”.
Beshir’s reservations centered on the role of the UN in any future large-scale peacekeeping operation in Darfur, which he stressed must be in line with provisions of the Darfur peace agreement he signed with rebel groups last May.
“Our understanding of the United Nations support packages (meant to pave the way for the joint UN-AU mission) is that the UN will provide technical, logistical, financial expertise and civil and military consultants with rank below that of the military commander appointed by the African Union,” the Sudanese leader said in his letter dated March 6.
“In phase three, the AU forces implementing that phase, in terms of control or command, must remain forces of the African Union supported by the United Nations as per the two packages,” he added.
The Sudanese envoy proposed that a tripartite commission grouping Sudan, the AU and the UN meet to resolve the issue and ensure that the UN plan is aligned with the DPA.
Khartoum signed the peace accord last May with one Darfur rebel faction, but other factions declined to sign on to the deal and the conflict has raged on, and even intensified according to humanitarian aid groups.
Last July, the Security Council passed a resolution calling for the deployment of 20,000 UN peacekeepers to halt the violence in Darfur.
But Beshir steadfastly rejected any large-scale UN troop deployment there, although he later endorsed a three-phase plan agreed at high-level November meetings in Ethiopia and Nigeria for the deployment of a “hybrid” AU-UN peacekeeping force.
(AFP)