UN secures first pledges for Darfur force
Sept 25, 2006 (UNITED NATIONS) — The United Nations secured its first pledges for a proposed major UN peacekeeping force for the strife-torn Sudanese region of Darfur, officials said.
But about 50 countries that attended a meeting of potential contributors at the UN headquarters were also warned of the many problems that could face any force, including attacks by rebels opposed to a Darfur peace agreement and by Al-Qaeda.
Sudan has strongly objected to the United Nations taking over from an African Union force currently in the western Sudanese region, where at least 200,000 people have died since the war broke out in February 2002, according to UN estimates.
But Jean-Marie Guehenno, the UN under secretary general for peacekeeping operations, said one European country and some developing countries, which he did not name, had offered several battalions for any UN force.
Other UN officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Norway, Nigeria, Tanzania and Bangladesh were the first countries to offer troops. Nigeria and Tanzania already have troops in the AU force but they would increase their contingent.
Though there is no firm agreement on a force, Guehenno said the meeting was held because “we do have interest in the mission and we want to keep up that interest.”
The UN Security Council passed a resolution in August calling for a UN force to take over from the ill-equipped African Union (AU) force in Darfur.
There are currently about 7,000 AU troops there but the organisation wants to increase that to 11,000 by the end of the year. The AU last week extended the force’s mandate until December 31.
Guehenno has set a target of a UN force of over 17,000 troops and 3,300 police to keep the peace and investigate allegations of atrocities in Darfur, where rebels turned against the Khartoum government in 2003 seeking a greater share of the region’s wealth.
The troop contributors’ meeting was warned that any UN force could face attacks from rebels who oppose a peace accord agreed in May, bandits and even from Al-Qaeda, which has in the past had bases in Sudan, officials said.
In April, Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden called on Muslims to resist “crusader” western forces in Darfur.
Amid reports of renewed intense fighting in Darfur and a statement by a top UN envoy last week that the peace accords were almost dead, the United States has led calls for international pressure on Sudan to accept a UN force.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said last Friday that “time is running out” to prevent an all-out Sudanese government onslaught against die-hard Darfur rebels.
“The violence in Darfur must end, and it must end now,” she told a special ministerial meeting of two dozen nations plus the European Union and the United Nations in New York.
The meeting discussed sending a delegation to Khartoum in yet another bid to persuade President Omar al-Beshir to drop his opposition to deployment of the UN force.
Beshir told the UN General Assembly last week that the UN force was part of a “Zionist” plot to “dismember” his country and “plunder” his abundant resources, particularly oil.
While waiting for new talks with Khartoum, the Security Council on Friday extended for two weeks the mandate of a 12,273-strong UN force deployed in southern Sudan, which expired Sunday.
(AFP/ST)