Sudan says willing to discuss UN peacekeepers deployment

May 16, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan is ready to discuss the deployment of UN peacekeepers in the strife-torn region of Darfur, Information Minister Zahawi Ibrahim Malek said.

He welcomed the visit to Sudan scheduled for next month by a delegation from the UN Security Council, which has been pressing for UN peacekeepers to take over from an embattled contingent of African Union troops.

“The delegation is coming to Sudan to negotiate with the government following the signing of the peace agreement” between Khartoum and the largest Darfur rebel faction on May 5, the minister said Tuesday.

“We are ready to negotiate with the United Nations” on its peacekeeping project, he added.

Washington, which pushed hard for the Abuja talks to yield some form of agreement, and the international community have stressed that the agreement needed to be propped up by UN peacekeepers if security was to be guaranteed.

Khartoum long remained vehemently opposed to such an option but has recently shown signs of flexibility. Yet the regime has stopped short of unequivocally accepting the plan and stressed it could only go forward at its own request.

“We will not accept the arrival of any force without a prior agreement with the government on this force’s mandate, its duration and its mission,” Malek said.

“If Sudan deems that the situation requires such a deployment, we have no objection because we are part of the United Nations,” he added.

A UN Security Council fact-finding mission will set off for a trip to several African countries next month, including Sudan.

The delegation, which will be led by Britain’s UN envoy Emyr Jones Parry in his capacity as chairman of the Darfur Group of Friends, will hold talks with officials in Khartoum, visit the southern capital Juba as well as Darfur.

Two Darfur rebel factions have yet to endorse the Abuja peace agreement, which raised hopes of an end to the more than three years of civil war and famine that have left some 300,000 people dead and 2.4 million displaced.

(ST)