Darfur force needs cash not blue helmets – Sudan FM
April 18, 2007 (DUBAI) — Sudan called on the United States and Britain on Wednesday to help secure funds to beef up peacekeeping arrangements in Darfur instead of pushing Khartoum to accept a larger U.N. peacekeeping force.
“We only want them to comply with the agreement … to talk about the forces agreed upon and not the international forces,” Foreign Minister Lam Akol told Reuters in an interview.
Sudan agreed this week to a “hybrid operation” in which 3,000 U.N. personnel and heavy support equipment would reinforce the African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur, and Akol said the two world powers should help get U.N. funds for the mission.
“They should play their role as members of the United Nations (Security Council) in this respect,” he said, when asked if he wanted the United States and Britain to help pay for the force.
Akol accused unspecified powers of hindering U.N. funding for the peacekeeping operation to prevent African nations from contributing more troops so that an international force could be installed.
“These sides are trying to block the adoption of a (financing) resolution,” he told reporters earlier, after the inauguration of his country’s consulate in Dubai.
Akol said African nations were willing to contribute more soldiers to the operation once the world body approved funding.
The AU peacekeepers have been unable to stem the violence in Darfur, a territory as big as France, where at least 200,000 people have been killed since 2003 in ethnic and political conflict triggered by a rebellion.
Washington and London, accusing Khartoum of not doing enough to bring peace to the violence-torn region, have put pressure on Sudan to allow a robust U.N. peacekeeping force into Darfur.
Although Sudan has not agreed to the final phase of the plan, in which at least 10,000 more troops would go into Darfur to form a hybrid force with AU troops, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the agreement on sending an additional 3,000 U.N. personnel “a very positive sign”.
Akol said Sudan had kept its part of the deal and denied rebel accusations that Khartoum was turning a blind eye to genocide in Darfur by the Janjaweed militia.
“There is no ethnic cleansing operation or annihilation in Darfur,” he said.
A rebel group accused Khartoum’s troops and militia of killing scores of people in a cluster of north Darfur villages on Tuesday. The Sudanese army denied the charge and blamed the fighting on “normal” tribal clashes.
Sudan signed a peace accord with one Darfur rebel faction last year but other groups have since splintered, adding to instability fuelled by feuding tribes, bandits and the Janjaweed.
(Reuters)