Uganda opposed to Darfur force deployment without clear mandate
August 23, 2007 (KAMPALA) — Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has cast doubts on the deployment of UN peacekeepers in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region before a clear mandate is struck out among the players on the ground.
The UN has proposed the deployment of a hybrid UN-African Union (AU) mission in Darfur. According to the world body, the forces deployed there should be under its command not the AU as the Sudan government wanted.
Museveni opposed the idea of the hybrid force being under the command system of the UN, saying his country would be reluctant to deploy troops there.
“I am not against the idea in principle but I want to be sure that it is something serious. Remember what happened in Rwanda where one million were killed in the presence of UN. I don’t want our soldiers in that situation,” said the president.
“I want to be convinced that sending our forces there is useful, ” he noted.
He said a similar situation occurred in 1961, when by the Prime Minister of Congo now Democratic Republic of Congo, Patrice Lumumba was killed and yet he was under UN protection.
“The type of mandate I would want is like the one UN gave to Australia to take full-charge of the peacekeeping mission in East Timor. But just belonging to a cocktail of confusion is something I do not want to be part of,” he said.
Ugandan peacekeepers in Somalia are responsible for guarding the airport, sea ports, and the vulnerable transitional government as well as for helping Somalia build army and police forces since they were deployed in March this year.
“The roll of us is to build their own power, not to be there to do things on their behalf,” Museveni further explained.
Bozize, Museveni’s counterpart, said his country has got enough internal problems to sort out, ruling out the possibility of deploy the country’s troops in Darfur.
“As Central African Republic, we have enough internal problems and we don’t think we have enough forces to send a contingent to Darfur,” he said.
“What is of interest for us is that there will be a UN-AU force in Darfur at the same time there will be an EU force on the common border between Chad and CAR,” he said, adding that the country wants a stable neighborhood.
The UN, the AU and Sudan agreed last November on a three-stage package to strengthen the 7,000-strong AU force which has been deployed in the region but has been unable to stop the conflict there.
With the first phase already in place, the Sudanese government gave the nod to the second “heavy support package” phase on April 16.
The revised AU-UN joint proposal, which sets out details of the third phase, will have to be approved by the UN Security Council and the AU’s Peace and Security Committee.
(Xinhua)