US holds meeting at the UN with ‘Friends of UNAMID’
June 15, 2008 (NEW YORK) – The US mission at the UN will convene a meeting that includes groups of countries who pledged support the African Union-United Nations peacekeeping Operation in Darfur (UNAMID).
The Inner City Press website reported that the meeting to be held tomorrow will include the US special envoy to Sudan Richard Williamson.
This will be the first time Williamson makes a public appearance since he returned from Khartoum earlier this month where he announced that normalization talks with Sudan have been suspended after failing to bridge differences between the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and Sudan People Liberation Movement (SPLM) over the oil rich region of Abyei.
The US envoy was the first to announce the formation of the ‘Friends of UNAMID’ last March after meeting with the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. The group includes the United States, Britain, France, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Tanzania, the European Union and the U.N. peacekeeping department.
Washington has grown increasingly frustrated with the slow pace of deploying peacekeepers to Darfur and recently appeared to throw the blame on the UN for the delay.
The US envoy sent a letter to the UN chief made public in April urging him to speed up deployment of peacekeepers to Darfur and ensure that at least 3,600 new soldiers and police are there by June.
UN Security Council adopted resolution 1769 on July 31st which authorized a hybrid UN-AU force (UNAMID) consisting of 26,000 troops and police but so far it only has only 9,000 personnel.
(ST)