UN, African Union meet over Darfur peacekeeping operation
June 16, 2007 ( ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia) — U.N. Security Council ambassadors met African Union officials on Saturday to discuss Sudan’s agreement four days ago to allow up to 19,000 peacekeepers in the war-wracked Darfur region.
The ambassadors and African Union officials would like to see a joint AU-U.N. peacekeeping force as soon as possible, said the U.K.’s U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, without giving a timeframe.
On Wednesday, Akuei Bona Malwal, the deputy head of Sudan’s diplomatic mission in Ethiopia, said the force could be in Darfur by October, depending on how quickly the U.N. and African Union are able to get troops and funds.
“This morning (Saturday) we debated at length about Darfur. The clear understanding between us is now moving forward speedily” on the joint force, Parry told journalists.
Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., said that a group of African Union, U.N. and Sudanese officials will work out the details of who will contribute troops to the joint force, when it deploy and how it will be funded.
The U.N. and Western governments have been pressing Sudan for months to accept a U.N. plan for a larger “hybrid” force of U.N. and African Union peacekeepers in place of the 7,000-strong A.U. force now in Darfur. Sudan initially accepted the plan in November but has backtracked since.
African Union officials assured the U.N. Security Council delegation, Sudan’s acceptance of the joint force Tuesday “was unconditional,” Khalilzad told journalists. “We will go and talk to the Sudanese government next to hear from them their own perspective on this agreement.”
The ill-equipped and underfunded A.U. force has been unable to stop four years of warfare that have left more than 200,000 dead.
The U.N. delegation travels to the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, on Sunday.
The ambassadors would also like to see aid agencies work without hindrance in Darfur, and those agencies that have been banned be allowed to resume their work there, Parry said.
International aid workers and officials are regularly expelled or hindered in their work in Darfur by Sudanese authorities.
More than 200,000 people have died in Darfur and 2.5 million chased from their homes since 2003, when local rebels took up arms against the Sudanese government, accusing it of decades of neglect. Sudanese leaders are accused of unleashing the pro-government Arab militia, the janjaweed, to fight them – a charge they deny.
(AP)