South Africa wants more peacekeepers in Darfur

Sept 21, 2006 (JOHANNESBURG) — South Africa said on Thursday it wanted the African Union’s (AU) peacekeeping force in Darfur to be strengthened and its mandate expanded.

Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad said: “We hope now with this new decision to extend its mandate necessary resources will be made (available) to possibly increase the AU force and the whole issue of extending its mandate would then be discussed.”

Pahad said one day after the AU announced that it would lengthen the stay of its peacekeeping mission in Darfur to the year’s end.

He said with the extension of the AU troops’ stay there was time for the UN Security Council to review its resolution to “bluehat” the AU troops.

South Africa has a few hundred troops in Darfur as part of the AU peacekeeping mission.

The AU and the United Nations have been pushing for the AU troops to be “blue hatted,” i.e. to become UN forces — but Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has repeatedly said his country would not accept UN peacekeepers in Darfur.

The UN Security Council resolved last month to expand its mission in Western Sudan from 7,000 to more than 20,000 troops also covering Darfur and to give it new authority to protect civilians.

“In their own mind (Sudanese government) there are sections of the resolution that is tantamount to taking all sovereignty away from them… If we can satisfy them that this is not, and would not be allowed to become, an instrument that has other hidden agendas,” Pahad said.

He urged the Security Council to see what compromises it could reach with the Sudanese government.

“We have to seriously assess those sections of the resolution that they believe is compromising their sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said.

(Xinhua)