US special envoy to Sudan tells UN chief “we want results”

March 5, 2008 (UNITED NATIONS) — President Bush’s special envoy to Sudan Richard Williamson told the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon that Washington wants to see progress on the Darfur peacekeeping force.

“All we want is results on the ground so there can be alleviation of human suffering” Williamson told reporters after his meeting with the UN Chief.

The newly appointed envoy also told Ban that the UN should not be hung on the issue of helicopters needed by the Darfur force.

“I think we’re wrong to obsess about the helicopters. Our immediate obsession should be to try to get peacekeepers on the ground” he said.

The United Nations has for months been seeking six attack and 18 transport helicopters to support the planned 26,000-member UNAMID force, which is starting to deploy in the violence-torn Darfur region of western Sudan.

The U.N. peacekeeping department says the helicopters are essential for UNAMID to operate in an area the size of France.

Countries have been slow to respond. The United Nations has accepted four attack helicopters from Ethiopia and is discussing transport helicopters with Ethiopia and Bangladesh.

But today Moscow’s U.N. ambassador said that Russia said maybe be able to supply some of the helicopters.

“We can’t let form get in the way of substance and the issues on helicopters are not some arbitrary specifications but what’s the mission? Are there other ways to solve it? The US government has come up with various ways to try and solve it” Williamson said.

The US envoy said that he told Sudan’s President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir during his recent visit to Khartoum that the “current situation is unacceptable”. He also asked Al-Bashir to accept 1,600 troops from Nepal and Thailand in return for US assistance to support African troops to be deployed in the coming months.

But Al-Bashir did not accept or reject the US proposal.

“Giving the instability and the violence going on, it is way past time for talks,” Williamson said. He also implicitly blamed members of the international community for not contributing enough to the force.

“Are there things other contributors can and should be doing? Yes” the US envoy said.

Williamson’s predecessor Andrew Natsios told Sudan Tribune last week that some countries and international organizations are intentionally slowing down the deployment of a peacekeeping force in Darfur but declined to name them.

The US envoy also disclosed that several countries are forming “friends of UNAMID” tomorrow to help with training and equipment.

Diplomats said the group, to be announced on Thursday, includes the United States, Britain, France, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Tanzania, the European Union and the U.N. peacekeeping department.

UN Security Council adopted resolution 1769 on July 31st which authorized a hybrid UN-AU force (UNAMID) consisting of 26,000 troops and police but so far it only has only 9,000 personnel.

(ST)