UN won’t take rejection to peacekeeper Ops in Darfur – official
March 19, 2007 (UNITED NATIONS) — The U.N. will never accept a rejection from Sudan’s president to a strong peacekeeping operation in Darfur, because the conflict is hurting millions of people in Sudan as well as neighboring Chad, the Central African Republic and even Cameroon, the U.N. peacekeeping chief said Monday.
Jean-Marie Guehenno told reporters after briefing the U.N. Security Council on President Omar al-Bashir’s rejection of all but a very limited role for the U.N. in supporting African Union troops in Darfur that he was pessimistic about a quick solution, though a beefed-up peacekeeping force is desperately needed.
“I have decided that indeed we still have unfortunately a long way to go because there may be some fundamental misunderstandings on what are the expectations of the government of Sudan and what is on offer,” he said. “There may be fundamental strategic differences.”
Al-Bashir made clear in a letter to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon circulated on Friday that he didn’t agree to a U.N. proposal to send more than 3,000 U.N. military, police and civilian personnel, along with substantial aviation and logistical assets to beef up the 7,000-strong African Union force now on the ground in Darfur. He has also raised objections to the final stage of a U.N. plan that calls for a 22,000-strong joint U.N.-A.U. peacekeeping mission.
“We’ll never take any reaction as a rejection,” Guehenno said. “We can’t afford that and the people in Darfur can’t afford that… We are prepared to clarify any detail in what is on offer.
“We believe it is a very coherent, solid, credible package that has only one purpose – that is to help the people there,” he said.
More than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million been chased from their homes in Sudan’s remote western region since 2003, when rebels stemming from ethnic African tribes rose up against the central government.
Khartoum is accused of having responded with indiscriminate killings by unleashing the janjaweed militias of Arab nomads blamed for the worst atrocities in Darfur. The government denies these charges.
Sudanese officials agreed in November on a three-phase U.N. package to help end the escalating violence in Darfur that culminates with the deployment of a 22,000-strong A.U.-U.N. force. But al-Bashir said in January that U.N. troops weren’t required in Darfur because the 7,000-strong African Union force on the ground could maintain order.
“The situation on the ground requires urgent action. Every week that passes, there is more suffering, there are people in camps, there is continued suffering of people in Darfur,” Guehenno said.
In his letter, al-Bashir was very supportive of a joint U.N.-A.U. effort to get rebel groups that refused to sign the Darfur Peace Agreement last May back to the negotiating table.
But Guehenno said that wasn’t enough.
“It’s true that recently, there has been an improvement in the situation, but fundamentally the situation remains extremely bad in Darfur so we do believe that it’s important to have a strong peacekeeping presence there. We believe that it’s important to have a political process – but that political process needs to be supported by a solid peacekeeping presence,” he said.
“We see the situation in Darfur really becoming a regional situation which has potential to engulf not only Sudan but also Chad, also Central African Republic. We see refugees going as far as Cameroon so it’s a situation really that is hurting millions of people in the region,” Guehenno said.
(AP)