US, UN pressure Khartoum to accept UN Darfur force
Aug 18, 2006 (UNITED NATIONS) — Pressure mounted on the Sudanese government on Friday to allow a U.N. peacekeeping force to replace the 7,000-strong African troops in Darfur, and both U.N. and U.S. officials warned of increasing violence.
Britain and the United States have introduced a Security Council resolution that would field up to 17,000 troops and 3,000 police in the lawless western region, despite opposition from the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum.
The U.S. deputy ambassador, Jackie Sanders, said Sudan’s consent “is not required” for the resolution to be adopted although troops cannot be sent without agreement from Khartoum.
Junior diplomats started negotiations on Friday on the draft, drawn up by Britain, and will resume on Tuesday.
Participants at the talks said Russia and China were hesitating. And Qatar, which is the only Arab member of the council and supports Khartoum’s policies, said the resolution would only worsen the situation, the envoys said.
“Something very ugly is brewing there,” Mark Malloch Brown, the deputy U.N. secretary-general, told reporters.
“We are extraordinarily concerned. We are extremely worried about the deterioration of the humanitarian and security situation in Darfur, and the absence of a clear path to the deployment of a U.N. force.”
In Washington, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said “the Sudanese government has both a need and an obligation to accept this force as part of the peace deal that they, themselves, agreed to.”
“This is a force that’s designed to help the Sudanese people overcome the terrible legacy of violence in Darfur that’s occurred over the past several years,” he told reporters.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch said it had obtained a copy of a proposal, drawn up by Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, to send 10,500 new government troops to Darfur.
The organization said this would be in direct violation of a the fragile Darfur Peace Agreement signed by the Sudanese government on May 5 because it ignores provisions for protection of civilians.
“This Sudanese plan is just the latest maneuver to prevent a U.N. force from helping protect civilians in Darfur,” said Peter Takirambudde, Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
The Darfur conflict erupted in February 2003, when non-Arab rebels took up arms against the government, claiming the region was being marginalized. In response, the government mobilized Arab militias, known as Janjaweed, who have been accused of murder, rape and looting. The fighting drove some 2.5 million people into squalid camps.
In recent months, rebels have split into factions and carried out banditry and atrocities against civilians.
Bashir, quoted by the official Sudanese News Agency, told a gathering of the armed forces on Monday, “We are determined to defeat any forces entering the country just as Hizbollah has defeated the Israeli forces.
(Reuters)