UN to host high-level meeting with AU on Darfur
April 15, 2007 (UNITED NATIONS) — UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Monday opens high-level talks here with the African Union (AU) on Darfur that could clear the way for deploying a sizable UN force in the strife-torn Sudanese region.
Ban was to hold two days of talks with Alpha Oumar Konare, the chairman of the AU Commission, to nail down a tentative deal reached with Khartoum to send about 2,300 UN troops to Darfur to bolster 7,000 under-equipped AU troops.
The two men were also to focus on the final phase of the United Nations plan expected to culminate in the deployment of a 20,000-strong joint UN-AU force in Darfur.
UN deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said Friday that Ban and Konare would brief the UN Security Council on their deliberations Monday afternoon.
“This will be an important opportunity to generate additional momentum to the peace process,” she noted.
Ban and Konare “will consider how best to give new impetus to the political process and the efforts of the special envoys wich are indispensable for the attainment of a lasting peace in Darfur,” she added
Also Monday the UN special envoy for Darfur, Jan Eliasson, and his AU counterpart Selim Ahmad Selim, who are tasked with reviving and broadening the wobbly peace agreement reached between Khartoum and Darfur rebels last May, were to brief the Security Council on the political track of the UN settlement plan.
The upcoming UN consultations coincide with a flurry of international diplomatic activity to end the festering humanitarian crisis in Darfur, where four years of ethnic strife have resulted in at least 200,000 deaths and displaced more than two million people, according to UN figures.
Libya announced Friday it would host an international conference on Darfur on April 28, with representatives of the United States, Britain, Sudan, Chad, Eritrea, the AU and the European Union expected to attend.
Libya’s number-two diplomat, Abdel Salem Triki, also shuttled between Chad and Sudan after the two countries became embroiled in border clashes.
Chadian troops chased rebels across the border with Darfur last Monday, sparking a battle with the Sudanese army. Khartoum said 17 of its troops were killed, while Chad reported about 30 killed on the two sides
Chad apologized for the incident but Sudan insisted it wanted further assurances.
Foreign envoys also lined up to confer with Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir: South African President Thabo Mbeki was in Khartoum Wednesday while US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte arrived there Thursday to press the Sudanese to accept the joint AU-UN force in Darfur.
Meanwhile in Washington, President George W. Bush’s administration came under fire in Congress after a senior official revealed that Bush had again delayed imposing sanctions against Sudan over Darfur.
Andrew Natsios, Bush’s special envoy to Sudan, told a Senate panel the delay was decided because the UN secretary general had requested another two to four weeks to persuade Khartoum to allow UN peacekeepers into Darfur.
Natsios said the US sanctions package now on Bush’s desk includes financial actions against 29 Sudanese companies and tougher implementation of existing sanctions on 130 other firms, all linked to the government.
Thursday Ban sought to reassure Sudan that helicopter gunships to be used by UN peacekeepers in Darfur would be used for deterrence, not for offensive purposes.
“There seems to be some misunderstanding on the part of the Sudanese government on this equipment,” he said, referring to the helicopter gunships. “This is not for any offensive purpose … When you deploy troops you need to have mobility with some capacity for deterrence.”
Monday after talks involving UN, AU and Sudanese government officials in Addis Ababa over the three-phase UN Darfur plan, Khartoum agreed to allow the UN to start sending reinforcements to AU troops in Darfur.
But the Sudanese said they had a problem with the use of helicopter gunships and said they would gove a response “within days”.
Khartoum, whose troops and allied Janjawed militia have been blamed by humanitarian agencies for widespread killing, rapes and burning of villages in Darfur, has opposed any large-scale UN military deployment.
(AFP)