Darfur ceasefire needed before peacekeepers – UN
Dec 5, 2006 (KINSHASA) — A ceasefire and political talks must take place in Sudan’s Darfur region before an international military force there could guarantee security, the head of U.N. peacekeeping said on Tuesday.
Jean-Marie Guehenno said the international community must demand assurances an African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur would be effective before it offered funding and equipment.
A Security Council resolution in August authorised some 20,000 peacekeepers but Khartoum has resisted international pressure for U.N. troops to join the African Union force.
Some 200,000 people have died in ethnic and political violence in Darfur since 2003.
“To stop this tragedy, there must first be a ceasefire on the ground,” Guehenno told reporters.
“As long as arms talk, there cannot be a political process, and as long as there is no political process then no force is going to change the situation.
“We must have a ceasefire, a political process and then a credible force,” Guehenno said. He arrived in Kinshasa for the inauguration of President Joseph Kabila, Congo’s first democratically elected president in more than 40 years.
Sudan has suggested it would accept an African Union force financed and supported logistically by the United Nations. The AU, which agreed last week to extend the mandate of its Darfur mission by six months from January, has also endorsed the principal of a hybrid force with the UN in a supporting role.
“We must have an efficient force which can make a difference on the ground,” Guehenno said. Discussions continued over its possible composition, he said.
“If the United Nations is to take the historic decision of financing a force which will not be composed entirely of UN troops, then UN member states must have the sensation that mission will really make a difference.” The Darfur conflict flared in 2003 when non-Arabs took up arms to fight for a greater share of power and resources. The government then backed Arab militia known as Janjaweed, who have killed thousands in the west of Sudan.
The ethnic and political violence has spilled over into neighbouring Chad and Central African Republic.
Guehenno said he would present different options to the UN Security Council for stabilising the situation in these countries, but it was premature to discuss the details.
Chadian President Idriss Deby said last week he would welcome a UN peacekeeping force along his country’s eastern border to contain the spillover of violence from Darfur.
Deby accuses Khartoum of supporting Chadian rebels, based in Darfur, who aim to end his 16-year rule. Sudan denies this.
(Reuters)