Is Darfur hybrid force accord real?
By William M. Reilly
June 14, 2007 (UNITED NATIONS) –The Sudanese government says that it accepted an African Union (AU)-United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operation to enter the Darfur region after an AU-UN accord on clarifications about the 23,000-strong force not expected to be online until next year.
The agreement, reached during two days of high-level technical consultations between the AU, UN and the Sudanese government in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, was reported Wednesday to the UN Security Council by Undersecretary-General Jean-Marie Guehenno, chief of UN peacekeeping operations.
But critics wonder how long Khartoum will stay onboard the agreement given its history of waffling on previous accords.
Almost immediately after the accord was announced two potential problems appeared to arise: Khartoum’s insistence on troops of a “largely African” character and the command and control of troops.
In the conclusion issued following the consultations, the Sudanese government said that it accepted the joint proposals on an AU-UN hybrid force “in view of the explanations and clarifications provided by the AU and the United Nations.”
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the positive conclusions and was looking forward to expeditiously implementing the hybrid force, his spokeswoman, Michele Montas, told reporters.
Asked whether Sudan’s acceptance of the hybrid force was unconditional, Montas noted Khartoum’s call for African troops and added that the world organization had always planned to deploy a large number of African troops to the region, although this depended on availability.
She also said that some issues raised about usage of land, water, and troop deployment still needed to be negotiated with the Sudanese government.
UN peacekeeping officials said that Khartoum had long sought a largely African presence among the peacekeepers, particularly troops “on the ground,” as they like to say at UN World Headquarters in New York. Sudan also wants the troops under the AU command.
Since the United Nations is supplying peacekeepers and paying for the entire operation, it wants control.
The AU was given control of day-to-day operations, but the world organization says that it will maintain overall control, stepping in when it feels necessary to call the shots.
But it is argued that nations in the region may not have the capacity, and troops beyond the continent will have to be called in, particularly for specialists, such as engineers. The United Nations has explained that to Sudan.
Guehenno said that such a scenario seems to him acceptable to Khartoum.
“I have no reason to believe that any of the troop contributors that we have proposed will be rejected, so I wouldn’t want to second guess the government of Sudan,” Guehenno told reporters Wednesday. “On command and control we have a joint position with the African Union which has been explained to the government of Sudan and that position was not challenged during the [Addis Ababa] meeting and again, I would not want to second the government of Sudan on that.”
The AU and the United Nations outlined two options for the military component, one with 19,555 troops and the other with 17,605 troops. The police component for both would require 3,772 police officers.
The hybrid operation is the third phase of a three-step process to replace the existing but under-resourced AU Mission in the Sudan of 7,000 troops, which has been unable to end the fighting in Darfur.
Deployment in the final phase is not seen until next year. It is now in its second, “heavy assistance” phase, with deployment expected next month, Guehenno said.
More than 200,000 people are estimated to have died and at least 2 million others have been displaced from their homes since clashes between Sudan government forces, allied Janjaweed militias, and rebel groups erupted in 2003.
There are fears now that some of the militias no longer answer to the government. In addition, rebel groups have splintered into about a dozen separate groups.
The planned hybrid force “would contribute considerably to the stabilization of the situation in Darfur in its political, humanitarian, and security dimensions,” said the accord’s conclusions, with the participants saying that both the UN Security Council and the AU Peace and Security Council must adopt the necessary decisions and resolutions to authorize the implementation and operation of such a force.
The AU, United Nations, and Sudan also underlined the need for an immediate comprehensive ceasefire, accompanied by an inclusive political process, as well as for troop-contributing countries and donors to step up and ensure that the hybrid force can be implemented quickly.
(UPI)