Security Council calls for planning for possible UN role in Darfur

Feb 3, 2006 (UNITED NATIONS) — The UN Security Council called for early contingency planning for a UN peacekeeping mission to replace the beleaguered African Union contingent in Sudan’s strife-torn Darfur region.

In a statement read by US ambassador John Bolton, the council asked UN chief Kofi Annan “to initiate contingency planning without delay, jointly with the African Union, … on a range of options for a possible transition from AMIS (the African Union mission) to a United Nations operation” in Darfur.

The 7,000-strong AMIS, which was deployed in 2004, has been suffering from poor funding and inadequate resources to contain the escalating bloodshed in Darfur.

Bolton, the council president for the month, said the statement gave the UN secretariat the authority to ask member states to contribute troops to the proposed UN force.

“Now with this authority clearly in hand, they (the UN) can begin to ask the question to governments what might be considering participating in the operation in Darfur,” he added.

Asked whether the United States might be willing to contribute troops to the Darfur force, Bolton replied: “It’s premature to speculate on that.”

The council statement said the planning should be conducted on the basis of “a unified, integrated approach” and by making maximum use of existing AMIS and United Nations Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) resources subject to agreement by troop contributing countries.

It also cited the need for an assessment of the “essential tasks to be carried out in southern Sudan and Darfur with a view to allocate and redeploy existing troops and assets to the maximum extent practicable.

The council further also underscored the need to “review and adjust the current structure of (the 5,783-strong) UNMIS, including command and control and logistics, at the earliest opportunity to make best use of available resources when the African Union deems a transition feasible and agreeable.”

Annan’s special envoy in Sudan, Jan Pronk has warned that a UN deployment would take time to overcome all the political obstacles likely to arise on its path and would most likely not materialize until late 2006 or early 2007.

Khartoum has already rejected the idea of a UN deployment in the western region and has sought to assert its right to choose who should be in charge of peacekeeping operations.

But African Union officials made it clear that as a member of the African body’s Peace and Security Council, Sudan would have to comply with any AU decision to deploy UN troops in Darfur.

The war in Darfur broke out in February 2003, when black ethnic groups launched a rebellion against Khartoum, which was brutally repressed by the Arab Islamist regime of President Omar al-Beshir.

The combined effect of the war and one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises has left up to 300,000 people dead and an estimated 2.4 million displaced.