UN claims lack of military observers in Darfur region

By Andrew England

KHARTOUM, Aug 18, 2004 (Financial Times) — The number of military observers deployed in the Darfur region of Sudan is not sufficient to monitor whether the Sudanese government fulfils its pledges to the United Nations, a senior UN official said.

Jan Pronk, the UN secretary general’s special representative to Sudan, told the FT on Monday night that there needs to be “thousands” of observers and supporting forces in Darfur if human rights violations and a ceasefire are to be effectively monitored throughout the region. There are currently around 120 African Union observers in Darfur, a region about the size of France, according to an AU official.

Another 155 Rwandan soldiers arrived in Darfur on Sunday to be part of a 308-strong AU force responsible for protecting the observers. But it will need a far bigger mission to adequately ensure the government is taking the necessary steps to protect civilians, Mr Pronk said. “What has been decided now on the basis of the action plan in all these areas cannot be monitored effectively with the present AU force,” Mr Pronk said. “We have to test lots on the ground, we can test with our own people, but we do not have enough. We need many more observers.”

The government agreed to an “action plan” with the UN after a July 30 UN resolution gave it 30 days to take measures to prevent attacks against civilians and prove its commitment to disarming pro-government Arab militia, known as Janjaweed, or face economic and diplomatic action.

Violence in Darfur has made more than 1m people homeless and killed thousands.

Human rights groups accuse the Janjaweed of conducting a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the region’s African tribes. Under the action plan, the government promised to identify militias it had control over and instruct them to lay down their weapons.