Sudan proposes solutions with limited UN role in Darfur – Senegal

Nov 13, 2006 (DAKAR) — Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir is proposing solutions on Darfur that do not completely reject the idea of United Nations involvement, but seek to limit U.N. intervention, Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade said on Monday.

“He’s proposing solutions. Now he’s not saying no to the United Nations, but he’s limiting the intervention of the United Nations,” Wade told a news conference in Dakar, saying he had received a letter from Bashir.

“But he’s not saying completely no,” he added.

Wade, one of several African presidents who has been involved in trying to persuade Bashir to accept a strong U.N.-led peacekeeping force in the conflict-torn Darfur region of Sudan, did not give further details of the letter.

But his reply to a question suggested possible room for a compromise in what had up to now appeared to be Sudan’s adamant opposition to a U.N. force for Darfur.

“It’s not completely negative,” Wade said, although he said the situation on the ground in the region was deteriorating.

The Senegalese president referred to the proposals from Bashir at a time when international efforts were intensifying to try to halt the bloodshed in Darfur, where tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in political and ethnic conflict since 2003.

The United Nations said on Monday Secretary-General Kofi Annan intends to float the idea of a “hybrid” African Union-U.N. force for Darfur in talks with Sudanese officials.

An AU force has been struggling to keep the peace in the region, and so the U.N. has been considering alternatives that would create a larger and better-funded peacekeeping mission that would nevertheless be acceptable to Khartoum.

(Reuters)