US calls for ceasefire to help Darfur peacekeeping force
December 31, 2007 (WASHINGTON) — The United States called Monday for an immediate and complete ceasefire in Sudan’s conflict-riven western Darfur region to help a new hybrid peacekeeping force get up to speed quickly.
“We welcome today’s formal transfer of authority from the African Union-led peacekeeping force in Sudan to the hybrid United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID),” State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said in a statement.
“We call on the government of Sudan and on all of the rebel factions to observe a complete and immediate ceasefire to facilitate UNAMID’s full and expeditious deployment, and to cooperate fully with UNAMID’s efforts to restore peace and security to Darfur,” he said.
“The people of Darfur have suffered for much too long,” the statement added.
US President George W. Bush also voiced support for the new peacekeeping force, and signed a law on Monday aimed at piling economic pressure on the government in Khartoum to finally end the violence in Darfur.
“I share the deep concern of the Congress over the continued violence in Darfur perpetrated by the Government of Sudan and rebel groups,” he said in a statement released as he prepared to ring in 2008 on his Texas ranch.
“My administration will continue its efforts to bring about significant improvements in the conditions in Sudan through sanctions against the government of Sudan and high-level diplomatic engagement and by supporting the deployment of peacekeepers in Darfur,” said Bush.
The new hybrid force took over from an African Union-led mission that has struggled to stem years of brutal conflict in Darfur.
At least 200,000 people have died and more than two million fled their homes in Darfur — a vast region in western Sudan, bordering Chad — since rebel groups took up arms against the Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum in February 2003, saying it was marginalising black African tribes in Darfur.
Khartoum responded by unleashing the Janjaweed, an Arab militia which attacked civilian communities suspected of supporting the rebellion and triggered what the United Nations has described as the “world’s worst humanitarian disaster.”
UNAMID, the UN’s largest mission, got Security Council authorization in July but will not be fully operational until well into 2008, amid accusations Khartoum is stalling and contributing countries are not supplying enough hardware, in particular helicopters to ensure the safety of the force.
At least 50 African peacekeepers died in the previous force’s mission, 12 in a single attack on an African Union base in September that was widely blamed on one of the rebel groups fighting government troops.
(AFP)