UN peacekeeping force in Darfur should be 17,000 strong
June 28, 2006 (UNITED NATIONS) — The UN’s senior peacekeeping official has recommended a 17,000-strong force for Sudan’s troubled Darfur province to begin deploying next January.
The UN force should be “of division size, that is three brigades deployed … three to five battalions in each brigade,” UN under-secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, Jean-Marie Guehenno, told reporters at UN headquarters Tuesday.
“We believe it would be wise to have an operation by the beginning of January 2007,” he added.
The UN force’s deployment will, however, be contingent on Sudan’s consent to have it replace an African Union peacekeeping force currently stationed in Darfur.
Although Guehenno refused to give a precise number of peacekeepers, diplomatic sources said a division size UN force usually numbers 17,000, including support troops.
“That’s a serious force,” said Guehenno, “but of course a peacekeeping force is deployed if it has the consent of the government of Sudan, and so far we don’t have that consent.”
In a statement to the UN Security Council, Guehenno said the peacekeeping force for Darfur should also have “considerable military air assets, some liaison officers and military observers, together with various enabling capabilities – engineering, communications, transport and others.”
“To assemble a credible force will take some time, that’s why it is so important in the meantime to reinforce” the AU mission while it awaits its UN replacement, he told the council.
“In the coming weeks it’s very important to continue the discussion with the government of Sudan to convince them that we are there to help,” he said.
The UN stresses that the deployment of a strong peacekeeping contingent in Darfur is essential for the success of the May 5 peace agreement signed in Nigeria between the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement and Khartoum.
The UN wants to replace the cash-strapped 7,000-strong AU contingent which has attempted in vain to maintain peace in Darfur over the past two years. The AU has agreed to have its troops replaced by a UN force.
However, Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir insists that his country can assume peacekeeping operations in war-torn Darfur.
Decades of tribal fighting in Darfur erupted into all-out violence in 2003, when ethnic minority rebels took up arms, accusing the Arab government in Khartoum of neglect and calling for autonomy.
In response, the regime unleashed its Janjaweed proxies on Darfur’s largely black population. The combined effect of war and famine has killed some 300,000 Darfuris and displaced 2.4 million.
(ST)