Sudan, UN to sign legal frame work of Darfur hybrid operation next week
February 1, 2008 (ADDIS ABABA) – Sudan will likely sign an agreement with the UN on the status of the Darfur peacekeeping force, a senior Sudanese official said today.
After long time rejection of the deployment of international troops Sudan agreed to have a joint peacekeeping operation insisting on the African character of the force. Besides, its refusal of the non-African troops Sudan wanted also to control communications and the movement of planes, troops and personnel.
“We have resolved he differences and we will likely sign an agreement in Khartoum next week” Sudan’s foreign minister Deng Alor told Sudan Tribune by phone.
However Alor did not eleborate on how the two sides managed to resolve the differences that persisted for months.
Technical delegations have started the negotiations on the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) in Khartoum since more than a week. Sudanese President Omer Al-Bashir and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon discussed the agreement on the sideline of the African summit in Addis Ababa.
The agreement will define the parameters for the composition, type of equipment and weapons UNAMID will possess, as well as assign land for use by the mission.
“It is sort of an operational and practical measure,” Abdal-Mahmood Sudan UN’s envoy, told IRIN. “It also contains what the government will give them [Hybrid Operation] in terms of immunities and what will be their privileges in the country.”
The UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Jean-Marie Guéhenno, also told reporters in Addis Ababa that the agreement would be signed “very shortly”.
“All the key issues have been resolved,” said Guéhenno. “On the composition of the force, we understand the position of the government is that [it will be] predominantly an African force, that is why we expedited the deployment of African units.
“We want at the same time to prepare for the deployment of a few non-African units for capacity that might not be available in Africa,” added Guéhenno.
Guéhenno had mush insisted on the crucial need for four key non-African units to the force: a Thai infantry battalion, two Nepalese special forces contingents and a Scandinavian engineering unit. According to him, UNAMID risked humiliation if it was not provided with the required muscle and firepower.
On the same register Sudanese presidential advisor, Osman Mustafa Ismail told IRIN “We should seek forces from the African continent. If we have not got enough, then we should look outside Africa,”
“For the time being we will have [forces] from Pakistan, China and medical assistance from The Netherlands. So we are not saying that it should be 100 percent African,” he added.
Abdal-Mahmood further said the Sudanese government no longer opposed night flights. “We also accept different types of helicopters,” he said.
In the past Sudan had delayed attribution of land to the UNAMID but during last December he had accepted to allocate requested land in El-Geneina and Zalingei regions in Darfur.
Sudan also had objected to the “rehatting” of African Union forces from green berets to the blue ones of the United Nations.
But the head of the peacekeeping said in the past that “We have been making preparations for peacekeeping troops to wear blue berets. The immunities associated with wearing the blue helmets and the UN insignia which are simply non-negotiable to troop contributing countries.”
The UN Security Council passed a resolution on Aug. 31 calling for the deployment of more than 20,000 international peacekeepers to replace the 7,800 AU force in Darfur, which is suffering the lack of funds, equipment and experience.
International experts estimate some 200,000 have died and 2.5 million driven from their homes in almost five years of fighting in Darfur after mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms accusing the central government of neglect. Khartoum mobilised mainly Arab tribes to quell the insurgency.
(ST)