US says Sudan must not waste time over UN force
Mar 27, 2006 (WASHINGTON) — Sudan’s government must not waste any time in agreeing to a U.N. force to stabilize its western Darfur region, where the situation is daily becoming more troubling, said a senior U.S. official on Monday.
“There is no time to waste. There are people suffering and dying every day and we need to do what we can immediately to address the security situation,” said Chris Padilla, chief of staff for U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick.
Zoellick plays a lead U.S. government role in trying to resolve the crisis in Darfur and was in Brussels and Paris this month trying to push for a U.N. force to take over from about 7,000 African troops struggling in the region.
Padilla told Reuters the U.S. government was in almost daily contact with the authorities in Khartoum, where some officials have so far resisted a U.N. force and would prefer more funding to be given to the ailing African Union mission.
“We have repeated that there is no time to waste and that the international community stands together in saying we should move ahead with a U.N. force,” said Padilla.
Last Friday, the U.N. Security Council voted to accelerate planning for a new U.N. peacekeeping force to be sent to Darfur later this year. The Bush administration had been pushing for weeks for such a move and Padilla said he was relieved a time limit had been placed on preparing options.
The resolution adopted unanimously by the 15-nation council gave Secretary-General Kofi Annan until April 24 to prepare a range of options for a U.N. operation in Darfur.
Sudan’s government has said it does not want U.N. troops in Darfur until a peace agreement is reached in talks taking place in the Nigerian capital Abuja, an argument Padilla rejects.
“We need to have a sense of urgency on both tracks, both in the talks and in a peacekeeping force” said Padilla.
African troops have been trying to monitor a shaky ceasefire agreement in the region, where 2 million people have been driven from their homes by a campaign of rape, killing and looting, called genocide by Washington. Tens of thousands of people have died in three years of fighting between government-backed Arab militias and non-Arab rebels.
The United States has not as yet offered any troops for a U.N. mission in Darfur and Padilla said Washington would like any such force to be “African at its core” and to be led by a military commander from the continent.
He suggested any U.S. involvement would be in providing support for logistics, communications and training rather than actual U.S. boots on the ground.
(Reuters)