UN force in Darfur must be African-led – AU’s Sassou

Jan 25, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — The African Union would want to maintain control of peacekeepers in Sudan’s Darfur region even if U.N. soldiers were sent to bolster the mission, the new head of the continental body said.

Congo Republic’s President Denis Sassou Nguesso, who was appointed by African leaders on Tuesday as chairman of the AU, said he would welcome U.N. support for around 7,000 AU troops in Darfur but that the force had to remain African-led.

“The United Nations can bring forces, but all of that should be to support the AU forces, under the command of the AU and its officers who are there,” Sassou told Reuters in a joint interview with French radio late on Tuesday.

“This dossier must be managed by the African Union. I believe that the international community will understand that it is better to operate like that,” he said after an AU summit in Sudan’s capital Khartoum.

The United Nations said earlier this month it wanted the United States and European countries to help form a tough mobile force in Darfur, where tens of thousands of people have been killed over the past three years.

The conflict began in February 2003 when rebels launched an uprising against Khartoum, accusing the government of marginalising the impoverished area. The government in turn armed Arab militias to put down the rebellion, who have been accused of conducting a campaign of rape, looting and murder.

The AU said earlier this month it may hand over its mission to the United Nations, as it was struggling to find the $17 million needed each month to maintain it.

The operation depends exclusively on voluntary contributions by foreign partners of the 53-member body.

The United States has said it favours a major U.N. role in Darfur and has also said NATO could do more in the troubled region. Sudan has said it does not want non-African forces involved.

PEACE THE PRIORITY

Sassou, chosen as a compromise candidate to head the AU after Sudan’s bid caused deep division among member states, said preventing conflict would be his first priority during his year in office.

He said he would be speaking with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo about rising tensions between Chad and Sudan.

Chad accuses Sudan of supporting rebels bent on ousting its President, Idriss Deby, and has said it is in a “state of belligerence” with Khartoum, which denies the charges.

“There are clear signs. If we do not put in place mechanisms to stop the escalation this situation could flare up,” Sassou said.

He said he would also urge rival factions in Ivory Coast, split between a government south and rebel-held north, to stick to the terms of a U.N. peace plan which foresees elections by October this year.

Diplomats welcomed the AU’s decision not to appoint Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, under fire for Sudan’s human rights record, as its new head but some analysts questioned Sassou’s own democratic credentials.

The French-trained paratrooper first became president of Congo in a military coup in 1979. He lost multiparty elections in 1992 and fought a bloody civil war to return to power five years later.

But Sassou defended his credibility as leader of the African Union.

“Our country is at peace. There are no prisoners of opinion in our country. Our country has had democratic elections,” he said. “It is because our country works in harmony with other African countries that our brothers have put their confidence in us.”

(Reuters)