UN’s Pronk calls for new, robust peacekeeping force in Darfur
Jan 13, 2006 (UNITED NATIONS) — UN special envoy for Sudan Jan Pronk urged deployment of a new, robust peacekeeping force in Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur province, able to deter attacks on civilians and to disarm militias responsible for atrocities.
Briefing the UN Security Council on the latest developments in Sudan, Pronk also called for sanctions against those responsible for the violence that has claimed as many as 300,000 lives and left more than two million displaced in three years of conflict.
Describing the security situation in Darfur as “chaotic,” he said: “looking back at three years of killings and cleansing in Darfur we must admit that our peace strategy so far has failed.”
“Terror continues. At least once a month groups of 500 to 1000 militia on camel and horseback attack villages, killing dozens of people and terrorizing the others,” he added.
While commending the role of African Union peacekeepers in Darfur, he said they had not been provided with adequate resources and needed to be replaced by a bigger, more robust force “able to defend itself, deter attacks on civilians and able to disarm militias and the (pro-Khartoum) Janjaweed which should have been disarmed by the government.”
He said the proposed force should stay at least three to four years after the signing of a peace agreement and should have its financing guaranteed.
“It should be an integral element of a unified approach toward Darfur, with humanitarian, political, police, legal, human rights, reconstruction and economic development instruments,” Pronk added.
He said the force should be backed by sanctions on unauthorized troop movements, on arms deliveries and on those people responsible for the violence.
UN experts have recommended a freeze on assets and a travel ban on those blocking the peace process and instigating violence in line with measures voted by the UN Security Council 10 months ago but never acted upon.
In a sign of the sense of urgency over the deteriorating situation in Darfur, UN chief Kofi Annan Thursday said the world body was readying contingency plans to deploy a quick-reaction force to take over from cash-strapped African Union peacekeepers there.
“We have started contingency planning to be ready if and when the decision is taken for us to go in,” Annan told reporters.
He spoke as the African Union said it may be forced to hand over its peacekeeping mission in Darfur to the UN if international donors fail to plug a funding shortfall.
Annan said AU Commission chairman Aplha Omar Konare indicated to him that the AU force would want to stay for another nine to 12 months “provided the donor community gives them the necessary resources and the logistical support.”
In December, the AU said it needed over 130 million dollars in new contributions to meet the 465 million dollars (387 million euros) it needs for AMIS operations in the current financial year that ends in May.
AMIS, financed mainly by the European Union, the United Nations and the United States, currently has some 7,800 personnel, including peacekeepers and observers, in Darfur.
Meanwhile, Salim Ahmed Salim, the AU Special Envoy for Darfur, told the council that the worsening crisis between Sudan and neighboring Chad made a Darfur settlement “more problematic”.
The Chadian government declared a “state of war” with Sudan last month following a rebel attack on the border town of Adre, and has asked the AU and the world community to head off further escalation of the conflict.
Chadian President Idriss Deby has repeatedly accused Khartoum of backing Chadian rebels in eastern Chad, on the border with Darfur, which has been in the throes of a civil war for three years.
Several new rebel groups have sprung up recently on the Chad side of the border, which houses more than 200,000 refugees who fled Darfur.
The Darfur conflict broke out in early 2003 when rebel groups began fighting what they say is the political and economic marginalization of the region’s black African tribes by the Arab-led regime in Khartoum.