Security Council pushes Sudan over UN Darfur force

May 12, 2006 (UNITED NATIONS) — The Security Council was expected to adopt a resolution next week increasing pressure on Sudan’s government to allow a U.N. peacekeeping force into Darfur later this year, council diplomats said on Friday.

A reluctant Khartoum had said it would consider letting U.N. troops take over from the smaller, ill-equipped African Union force now in war-torn Darfur only after a peace accord.

But the government has given mixed signals since a peace deal was signed in the Nigerian capital Abuja last week.

U.N. diplomats said the 15-nation Security Council, which authorizes peacekeeping operations, was near consensus on a U.S. draft resolution calling for U.N. military planners to be in Darfur within a week of the measure’s approval.

The resolution would also urge the government and Darfur rebels to work with AU and U.N. officials “to accelerate transition to a United Nations operation.”

The Khartoum government has so far declined to invite the U.N. military planners to Darfur — as part of a joint mission with AU planners — or give them visas.

French Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere predicted a council vote on the draft “early next week.”

“I think we are very close to bringing that before the council,” added U.S. Ambassador John Bolton. “I hope it will be unanimous, but again, we are prepared to go whether it is unanimous or not.”

The council planned to wait to vote until after a Monday meeting in Addis Ababa of the AU Peace and Security Council, where a decision was due on whether — and, if so, when — to shift to a U.N. mission in Darfur, diplomats said. Under pressure from Sudan, the AU council had previously waffled on whether to turn over its mission to the United Nations.

European Union foreign ministers were set to issue a statement in Brussels on Monday stressing that a transition to a U.N. force was “the only viable option for providing sustained stability and security in the long-term” in Darfur.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has already written Sudanese President Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan al-Bashir about the planning team and expects the planners to be granted visas soon, U.N. chief spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

“The expectation continues that we will have a joint planning team with the African Union on the ground in Darfur as soon as possible,” Dujarric told reporters. “We would expect the government of Sudan to cooperate fully and let this team do its work.”

(Reuters)