Arab league to finance AU troops in Darfur for six months
Aug 21 2006 (CAIRO) — The Arab league Monday decided to provide funding for cash-strapped African Union troops in Sudan’s Darfur region amid international pressure to accept the dispatch of a UN force.
The Arab League’s Council of Foreign Ministers in a meeting held Monday in Cairo decided to finance the African Union troops in Darfur for the coming six months starting from 1 October 2006.
The council further urged the Arab States to provide financial and material support to the AU Mission to enable it continue its tasks, calling on the Arab States to enhance its participation in the AU forces and monitors in the region.
The Arab League’s Council of Foreign Ministers, in an ordinary meeting in Cairo Sunday, affirmed the importance that the African Union (AU) continues its efforts in Darfur and completes its task in tackling the crisis in the region, particularly with regard to its political mediation and supporting and monitoring of the cease-fire.
At the conclusion of its meeting at the premises of the Arab League Secretariat General, the council affirmed that sending any other forces to Darfur necessitates consent of the Sudanese government.
The council further urged the Arab States to provide financial and material support to the AU Mission to enable it continue its tasks, calling on the Arab States to enhance its participation in the AU forces and monitors in the region.
The Arab leaders had decided in Khartoum Summit last May to finance the AU troops for a period of six months or until the end of its current mission which was renewed in March.
The move came after Sudan pressed fellow members of the Arab League to reject plans for the deployment of UN peacekeepers to Darfur, where war, disease and famine have cost up to 300,000 lives in three years.
The Arab Foreign Ministers praised the role of the AU Forces in Darfur and their good work towards realization of security and stability in the region, calling for provision of the necessary support for these forces to complete their task.
The council also decided to ask the Security Council to avail the Sudanese Government enough time to implement its plan, which it presented to the UN, for improving the situations and preserve security in Darfur according to what was agreed upon by the Sudanese President Omer Al-Bashir and the UN Secretary General Koffi Annan.
The Arab council, as well, called for availing the opportunity for further consultations and coordination between the regional organizations concerned with the situation in Darfur on the role of the AU Forces.
The council also called on the Arab States to fulfill their commitments towards the AU Forces according to the resolutions of Khartoum summit, and work for immediate political and diplomatic move with all the concerned parties and to give the priority for political solution.
At the end of Khartoum Summit, Arab leaders had called on Arab African countries to send more troops to join the AU force.
The meeting welcomed the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA), signed in Abuja last May, appreciating the role of the Arab League, in collaboration with the UN and the international partners, in reaching this agreement.
The council further asked the international community to accelerate fulfillment of its commitments towards supporting the AU to enable it actively contribute to the implementation of the DPA to achieve security and stability in the region in particular, and the whole Sudan in general.
(ST)