UN deploys more advisors in Darfur by the end of January

Jan 24, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — The UN mission in Sudan said today that five police advisors and twenty military officers should be deployed in Darfur before the end of the current month.

The UN announced today during the fifth meeting of the tripartite commission that it will deploy soon five UN police advisors and twenty Military Staff Officers. “By the end of January 2007, it is estimated that a total of 47 UN Military Staff Officers and 30 UNPOL Advisors would have been deployed under the Light Support Package” (LSP) to the African troops in Darfur.

Also, it was announced that ten civilian staff have arrived to Khartoum and they will be soon deployed.

The total of personnel to be deployed in support to African Union Mission in Sudan in the framework of the Light Support package is 105 Military Staff Officers; 33 Police Advisors and 48 civilian staff.

In response to the AU demand to expedite the completion of the LSP, the UN said the delay “could be overcome with the cooperation of all parties concerned, including the Sudanese Government on issues related to clearance of goods and materials and approval of requests, such as for allocation of land plots for office and residential accommodation of the staff deployed under the support package.”
The tripartite mechanism will meet again on 7 February at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Khartoum.

Yesterday Sudanese president has reiterated his rejection of the deployment of international troops in Darfur, saying that a UN-AU hybrid force should remain African.

Al-Bashir stressed that the command and the troops should be from African countries and under the authority of the African Union. The UN should only provide material support.

The United States on Wednesday urged Sudan to publicly agree to the last phase of a plan to get international peacekeepers into Darfur and prodded reluctant U.N. members to contribute troops to such a mission.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Khartoum had promised cooperation with the first two phases of a U.N./African Union plan for Darfur. But it was balking at agreeing to the final phase, when the bulk of the international peacekeepers would move into war-torn western Sudan.

(ST)