AU proposes extending its Darfur mission

Mar 10, 2006 (ADDIS ABABA) — The African Union on Friday proposed extending its mission in Darfur until the end of the year to break an impasse over the transfer of peacekeeping duties in Sudan’s vast west to U.N. troops.

AU Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare made the recommendation at the start of a meeting of the group’s Peace and Security Council, which is under intense international pressure to turn over Darfur peacekeeping to the United Nations despite strong objections from Sudan.

He said extending the mission would give the organisation time to persuade Sudan to accept a U.N. presence in Darfur where a three-year-old conflict has displaced more than 2 million people and created a major humanitarian crisis.

“I recommend that the Peace and Security Council renew the mandate of the mission for a period of nine months, until Dec. 31,” Konare said in a report to the AU council.

That would be predicated on funding commitments from AU partners, intensified efforts to push the parties to reach a peace deal at talks in Abuja, Nigeria, and on finding a diplomatic solution to the Chad-Sudan crisis, the report said.

The cost of extending the mission from April through December would be $218 million, the report said. The African Mission in Sudan (AMIS) still needs an additional $4.6 million to reach the end of March, it said.

SUDAN IN FAVOUR

The AU is monitoring a shaky ceasefire with 7,000 ill-equipped troops. Security has deteriorated recently to the point that vast areas of Darfur are off limits to aid workers.

Sudan said it would accept the AU proposal and reinforce AU troops in Darfur with 10,000 men — half Sudanese armed forces and half former southern Sudanese rebel SPLA soldiers who have been integrated into the Sudanese army.

“This force can be deployed in Darfur within three weeks,” Sudan said in a presentation to the council.

Sudanese Foreign Minister Lam Akol said Khartoum would also consider U.N. peacekeepers in the future if security was stabilised in Darfur and a peace deal reached at talks in Abuja. He said he expected a peace agreement by the end of March.

Taye-Brook Zerihoun, the U.N. Mission in Sudan’s principal deputy special representative of Secretary-General Kofi Annan, told Reuters the world body would also accept the AU plan.

“It’s fine with us. It makes our work even easier if we go in through a peace agreement,” Zerihoun said.

Ahmed Tugod, chief negotiator for the Justice and Equality Movement at the Abuja talks, was less optimistic a peace deal could be reached. “The chances of success or failure are about 50/50,” he said. But he said JEM would conditionally support a continued AU mission in Darfur.

“If the international community will support the AU to carry out their mission in Darfur and give the AU a full mandate to protect civilians then it’s a good idea,” Tugod said.

Abduljabbar Dosa, chief negotiator for the Sudan Liberation Army, said the SLA would cooperate “with whoever is there to achieve peace.”

But he criticised the government position that it would not discuss a U.N. presence in Darfur until the Abuja talks produced an agreement. “The government is not serious in Abuja,” he said.

CASH CRISIS

Friday’s ministerial level AU meeting follows two days of intensive negotiations between the European Union, which has provided the bulk of the funding for the peacekeeping mission, the United States and Sudan’s government.

Washington and the EU tried unsuccessfully to persuade Sudan to accept a U.N. force, the possibility of which prompted government-led protests in Khartoum this week and threats of jihad against any U.N. troops.

Akol said if the AU decided to turn over its mission to the United Nations it would spell the end of peace talks in Nigeria and any AU role in security in Darfur.

“As much as the government of Sudan would want AMIS to continue, should the AU choose to terminate its mandate in Darfur it is free to do so, and this will include all aspects of its involvement in security and the peace processes,” Akol said in a statement to the AU.

The United States has condemned the violence in Darfur as genocide. It accuses Sudan’s government of fighting mostly non-Arab rebel movements by arming Arab militias, known as the Janjaweed, who have terrorised villagers across the region with a campaign of rape, murder, and crop and home destruction.

Khartoum denies genocide and denies links to the Janjaweed.

(Reuters)