Arabs to fund African Darfur troops

Mar 28, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Arab leaders have promised to fund African soldiers in Darfur from October this year, despite international pressure to allow the United Nations to take over the mission.

Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir waves as he leaves at the end of the first day of an Arab summit in Khartoum March 28, 2006 .

Sudan’s president, wary of U.N. military intervention in Darfur, asked an Arab summit in Khartoum on Tuesday to provide more cash for African Union forces struggling to contain violence in the troubled west.

“There was a complete commitment from Arab leaders to fund the African Union mission in Darfur from Oct. 1, 2006,” said Sudan’s minister of state for foreign affairs, al-Samani al-Wasiyla.

Libyan Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdel-Rahman Shalgam said: “The AU is able to finance with the donors still 6 months. After that (during) the second mandate the Arabs are going to support those troops.”

Palestinian Foreign Minister Nasser al-Kidwa told Reuters the decision could mean the Arab League would entirely fund the cash-strapped mission if necessary.

But given the AU earlier this month renewed its mission only until end-September, a period the United Nations considers transitional and are making plans to take over, the Arabs are unlikely to have to live up to their pledge.

Some Sudanese officials have said they would consider a U.N. force once a peace deal has been signed in painfully slow negotiations in the Nigerian capital Abuja. They say they hope for that deal by the end of April.

Tens of thousands have been killed and more than 2 million, mostly non-Arabs, driven from their homes during more than three years of rape, killing and pillage in Darfur.

Opposition politicians say the government is scared U.N. forces in Darfur may be used to arrest anyone indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is investigating alleged war crimes in the region.

The AU says it costs around $17 million a month to run the 7,000-strong mission which is struggling to stop escalating violence in Sudan’s remote west.

The AU relies on the whim of donor nations, mainly, the United States, Canada, Britain and the European Union. U.N. peacekeeping mission are paid for by the U.N. budget.

Arab League officials say the pan-Arab body has already given $200,000 to the AU mission in Darfur and $50,000 to the Abuja peace process.

Kofi Annan told the summit the envisioned U.N. force would likely include AU troops already on the ground rather than large numbers of Western soldiers in a speech read on his behalf.

Arab and international rights groups urged Arab states to support transition to a U.N. force which they said would be more capable to stop the violence.

“Arab leaders must put the interests of Sudan’s people first and support the transition to a U.N. force in Darfur,” a statement from 15 human rights groups said.

(Reuters)