Sudan to brief UN Security Council on Darfur plans
Aug 22, 2006 (UNITED NATIONS) — Sudan’s government has been invited to brief the U.N. Security Council next week on its plan to send troops to Darfur and its opposition to U.N. peacekeepers there, a key council member said on Tuesday.
The 15-nation council has set the meeting for Monday, in the form of an open briefing, said Nana Effah-Apenteng, Ghana’s U.N. ambassador and the council president for August.
“On the basis of that decision, I have issued invitations to the Arab League, the OIC (Organization of the Islamic Conference), the government of Sudan and the African Union to join us for discussions,” he told reporters.
Arab League foreign ministers, meeting in Cairo, appealed to the council last Sunday to call off the meeting to give the Sudanese government more time to carry out its plan to deploy 10,500 new government troops in Darfur.
Tens of thousands of people have died and some 2.5 million driven from their homes by violence in Darfur that erupted in early 2003.
To put down a revolt by mostly non-Arab rebels, the Sudanese government armed mainly Arab militia, known as Janjaweed, who have waged a campaign of rape, plunder and murder of the indigenous population.
Some human rights groups and council members see the Sudanese government plan as a ploy to prevent the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers so that the slaughter and “ethnic cleansing” of the region can continue unchecked. They say conditions in Darfur have deteriorated even further in recent months.
With U.N. officials warning of a new humanitarian disaster, the United States and Britain have asked the council to quickly adopt a resolution clearing the way for the 7,000-strong African Union force now serving in Darfur to be replaced by a bigger and better equipped U.N. force.
But the Arab-dominated Sudanese government in Khartoum has so far adamantly refused to accept a U.N. force.
Arab League U.N. Observer Yahya Mahmassani said he had pressed Effah-Apenteng to hold the planned council meeting behind closed doors, so that participants could speak frankly.
“An open meeting is very bad. If they want to do something, let’s have a closed meeting (or) everyone speaks to the media, to the street,” he said.
The goal of such a meeting should be to convince Khartoum to accept a U.N. force, he said. “If you can, give them some guarantees, give them some explanation, don’t give them a diktat,” he said.
(Reuters)