Sudan agrees on deploying UN experts in Darfur
Dec 25, 2006 (KHARTOUM) — The Sudanese government has agreed on the deployment of international military experts in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, the Alsahafa daily reported on Monday.
According to an agreement reached between the Sudanese government and the United Nations, the world body will send immediately 105 international experts to Darfur as the first stage of implementing a package plan of the UN to promote stability in the region, the Arabic-language newspaper said.
The experts will be stationed at some safe locations in order to provide assistance to troops of the African Union (AU), which are monitoring a fragile ceasefire between conflicting parties in the region.
Al-Sadig al-Magli, director of the Peace Department of the Sudanese Foreign Ministry, told the newspaper that the command of the experts had not been determined at present.
“The government insists that it only accept a limited number of international experts and observers to be deployed in Darfur,” the official stressed.
Outgoing UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan sent a special envoy to Khartoum last week to persuade the Sudanese government to accept a UN suggestion on deploying a UN-AU hybrid peacekeeping force in Darfur.
However, the Sudanese government has turned down the suggestion, saying that the Darfur peacekeeping mission should be continuously carried out by the AU with logistic, technical and consultative help from the UN.
A tripartite committee formed by the UN, the AU and the Sudanese government will hold a meeting in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Tuesday to discuss ways of assisting an AU peacekeeping force in Darfur.
(Xinhua)