UN’s Annan sounds latest alarm over Darfur crisis
Oct 5, 2006 (UNITED NATIONS) — Darfur is creeping ever closer to catastrophe, with rape and violence on the rise, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a report Thursday, as Sudan warned that any nation offering troops for a future peacekeeping force on its territory would be committing a “hostile act.”
In the report to the Security Council, Annan said a May peace deal was not being followed, and that humanitarian access is at its lowest level since 2004. Sudan’s armed forces, as well as rebel factions and the militias, continue to violate international human rights law and humanitarian law with impunity, he said.
“It has now been three months since the Darfur peace agreement was signed,” Annan wrote. “However, instead of reconciliation and building of trust, we are witnessing intensified violence and deeper polarization. The region is again on the brink of a catastrophic situation.”
“Unless security improves, the world is facing the prospect of having to drastically curtail an acutely needed humanitarian operation,” Annan said.
A key stumbling block to the peace so far has been President Omar al-Bashir’s rejection of an August Security Council resolution that would allow the United Nations to take control of and significantly expand a peacekeeping force in Darfur, run so far by the African Union.
In a letter sent to several nations on Tuesday but disclosed Thursday, al-Bashir’s government took aim at any country that might be considering troops for a potential force. The Sudan government criticized a Sept. 22 note sent by the U.N. asking nations to nominate police personnel who would be sent to Sudan to support the African Union mission.
“In the absence of Sudan’s consent to the deployment of U.N. troops, any volunteering to provide peacekeeping troops to Darfur will be considered as a hostile act, a prelude to an invasion of a member country of the U.N.,” the letter said.
That response was puzzling because the Sept. 22 note makes clear the police would be sent to support the African Union mission, not as a separate force.
The sharp words in the letter prompted the U.S. to convene an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council to consider a response. U.S. Ambassador John Bolton called the document an unprecedented rebuff to the council.
“This is a direct challenge to the authority of the Security Council in its efforts to alleviate the tragedy in Darfur and clearly requires a strong response by the Security Council,” Bolton said.
He warned darkly that people should ask if “other possibilities are going to have to be pursued” if the United Nations can’t address the Sudan issue effectively, though he did not specify or go as far as U.S. President George W. Bush, who said earlier this week that the United Nations should not wait any longer to approve a force for Darfur.
The council broke in the afternoon, and Japan’s ambassador, the U.N. Security Council president for October, said he would approach Sudanese officials for clarification. Bolton promised to circulate a draft response in the afternoon, but several others clearly did to share his outrage.
Tanzania’s U.N. Ambassador Augustine Mahiga called the tough U.S. stance unhelpful to breaking the deadlock in Darfur. He said more time was needed to persuade al-Bashir to allow U.N. troops in.
“At this time we should be focused on the positive aspects and try to avoid any kind of confrontational approach,” Mahiga said. “It’s much more healthy and productive to capitalize on the positive aspects of this whole problem.”
In a separate letter to Annan on Thursday, al-Bashir himself repeated his position that the government would allow the U.N. to help support the African Union peacekeepers.
“Cooperation and consultations between the United Nations, the African Union and the Government of National Unity would speed up finding a solution to the question (of Darfur) and help instill a permanent peace in Sudan,” al-Bashir said in his message, according to the official Sudan News Agency.
The African Union force, which currently has about 7,000 troops, is meant to monitor a peace deal signed between al-Bashir’s government and the rebels in May and intended to end the fighting that has left more than 200,000 dead and displaced some 2.5 million since 2003. The government is accused of backing a band of militias known as the janjaweed.
A U.N. spokeswoman said the provision of funds and logistics did not mean the world body was backing off from its plan to put the Darfur mission under UN control. Radhia Achouri, spokeswoman for the U.N. in Sudan, said the aid offer “is not to be seen as an alternative to a U.N. deployment” in Darfur.
(AP/ST)