Anti-genocide watchdog hails movement toward UN mandate for Darfur
Jan 13, 2006 (LONDON) — The Aegis Trust welcomes statements from the African Union and the UN made in the last 24 hours which indicate that the way is being made clear for a UN mandated peacekeeping force in the Darfur region in the next year. The Aegis genocide prevention charity, based in the UK, has been calling for such a move since mid-2004.
The African Union’s 6,000-strong mission in Darfur, AMIS, has been a groundbreaking development for the AU in responding to conflict and crisis. It was particularly poignant that Rwanda, after its experience of genocide in 1994, took a lead. “This sets a precedent for future AU-led missions,” said Chief Executive Dr James Smith. However, AMIS has been dogged by problems of finance and capacity, and during recent months its troops have come under attack by unidentified groups within the region. “It is almost three years into the crisis now. At least a quarter of a million people have been killed, tens of thousands have been raped, thousands of villages have been burned and raised to the ground, two million are living in terror, over three million are dependent on food aid. That the Security Council is taking this seriously now is not before time. People in Darfur remain under extreme threat.”
This development comes after increased instability in the region since September 05, and the resumption of ethnic cleansing by militias backed by the Government of Sudan. As Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General outlined on Thursday (12 Jan 06), “the killings are going on, the rapes are going on. There is insecurity for the internally displaced persons and also for humanitarian workers. We have lost access to some of the needy people, and we have had to remove some of our own staff from the area”. He continued, “obviously the international community cannot allow that situation to go unaddressed and, in all likelihood, will have to look at other options, including possibly the UN working with the African Union to address that situation. But they need money. They need it quickly.”
Britain’s UN Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said there was support in the Security Council for a UN takeover. “We’re quite clear that’s what we need to do if the African Union agrees,” he said after Thursday’s lunch with the Secretary General. “But the African Union must be brought to agree.”
While a report by the AU Peace and Security Council, obtained by Reuters states “The time has come to make a pronouncement on the future of the AU Mission in Darfur and the ways and means to adapt it to the present challenges, including the hand over to the United Nations at the appropriate time”.
It is expected that the African Union will continue its operations for another 9 – 12 months, while the UN gains the backing of western troop-supplying countries, and sets up the proposed mission. Funding for the African Union during this phase will be critical. At present the AMIS mission only has funding up until the end of March. Dr James Smith said, “It will be in nobody’s interest for international donors to let AMIS flounder at this stage. Not least because the AU must prevent the situation deteriorating into irretrievable chaos before a handover to the UN”.
Mr Annan said plans for the proposed force would need the co-operation of the Sudanese government. “We need to get the government to work with us in bringing in an expanded force with troops from outside Africa, because until recently it has maintained that it will only accept African troops,” he told reporters. “But I think we have gone beyond that now.”
ENDS
For more information contact David Brown, Aegis Trust Media Office, mobile: 07812 640873, tel:01623 836627, email: [email protected]