UN command for Darfur peacekeeping force is not negotiable – US
By Wasil Ali
April 13, 2007 (WASHINGTON) — President Bush’s Special Envoy to Sudan Andrew Natsios told the US Senate that UN command and control of the Darfur peacekeeping is not negotiable. Natsios said that the US insisted that this stipulation be included in the Addis Abbaba communiqué signed in November of last year.
Sudan has routinely rejected any UN peacekeepers in Darfur and insisted that it will only allow African forces under AU command with logistical, financial and administrative assistance from the United Nations. Earlier this week the Sudanese foreign minister Lam Akol said that the UN role would be confined to a logistical role in supporting AU forces in Darfur.
The committee on foreign relations at the US senate summoned Natsios to testify on the Bush administration’s plan to deal with Sudan should it insist on rejecting UN peacekeeping force in Darfur. The hearing comes amidst deep frustration among US lawmakers that the Bush administration is dragging its feet on imposing sanctions on Sudan.
The US has long threatened Sudan with a ‘Plan B’ if it doesn’t agree to the proposed deployment of a “hybrid” force of 20,000 United Nations and AU peacekeepers and police officers. Natsios revealed that the sanctions include restricting dollar transactions with companies doing business in Sudan and imposing an asset freeze and a travel ban on three Sudanese figures. However Natsios said that the US will hold off sanctions temporarily “as a courtesy to the U.N. secretary-general”.
Natsios hinted that China has radically shifted its position on the Darfur crisis and is applying substantial pressure on Khartoum but he declined to elaborate. He also criticized some of Sudan’s neighboring countries without naming them for not “playing a constructive role” on the Darfur crisis. Analysts say that the US has quietly conveyed to the Libyans their dissatisfaction with the creation of multiple political negotiation in Darfur tracks outside of the UN system.
(ST)