Annan fails to convince Sudan to accept UN Darfur force
July 2, 206 (BANJUL) — U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan on Sunday failed to persuade Sudanese leader Omar Hassan al-Bashir to allow a U.N. force into Darfur, but said he still expected it to be deployed eventually.
Annan met Bashir on the fringes of an African Union summit where he called the Darfur crisis “one of the worst nightmares in recent history”. He has previously described Bashir’s opposition to the U.N. force as “incomprehensible”.
At a news conference later he said the United Nations would work with the AU to strengthen its under-resourced 7,000-strong force in Sudan’s western region and had asked the summit to extend its mandate for at least three more months.
The AU has been unable to stem the crisis in Darfur, where tens of thousands have died in three years of rape and murder.
Referring to his meeting with Bashir, Annan said: “I of course continued to press for the eventual deployment for a U.N. force in Darfur and we agreed that dialogue had to continue.”
He added: “President Bashir has indicated that in the world of politics things change. We hear ‘never’ and … yet in time it does come round and so I am still expecting that in time there will be a U.N. peacekeeping force deployed in Darfur.”
The summit in Gambia’s steamy seaside capital has been dominated by the intractable Darfur crisis and rising tension in Somalia after Islamist forces conquered Mogadishu.
The AU had wanted to pull its force out of Darfur on September 30 and have it replaced by U.N. troops.
They cannot be deployed without Bashir’s consent but diplomats say little pressure can be brought to bear on him.
Western powers, the U.N. and analysts all say the crisis, in which 2.5 million people have been driven from their homes into squalid camps, can only be stopped by a strong U.N. force.
“WESTERN INVASION”
Khartoum says the deployment would be a Western invasion, attracting Islamic militants and creating an Iraq-like quagmire.
Annan said a conference would be held in Brussels on July 18 to seek support for the AU force and Bashir would present a plan for the next six months by the end of July.
Annan said a May 5 peace deal signed by Khartoum and one rebel group must be implemented immediately.
The agreement has been undermined by its rejection by two other rebel groups and AU forces have been attacked in refugee camps. Annan said the hold-out groups must be brought on board.
Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade told reporters at the summit that he would accept the recommendations of an AU legal panel for former Chadian leader Hissene Habre to be tried for political murder and torture in Senegal, where he lives.
A Senegalese court had previously ruled Habre could not be tried there but Wade said he would ask parliament to amend the law. Belgium has indicted Habre and requested his extradition.
A Chadian inquiry accused Habre’s government of 40,000 political killings and 200,000 cases of torture during his 1982-1990 rule.
The summit, which is expected to end late on Sunday, will offer strong support to Somalia’s weak interim government but there seems scant chance of substantial progress in reducing tension with newly powerful Islamist forces.
The AU says it will not deal directly with the Islamists, who control Mogadishu and a large swathe of central-southern Somalia since defeating U.S. backed warlords in early June.
It urges dialogue between the government and the Islamists. But the interim administration says a hardline takeover of the Islamist leadership has prejudiced talks later this month.
(Reuters)